Peppermint Bark

Delicious? Easy? Perfect for an edible holiday gift? Yes, yes and yes. Peppermint candies and white chocolate are a wonderful holiday combination and I amped this on up with some holiday peppermint M&Ms, just for fun. Dave was particularly excited about this treat since he loves peppermint bark. Do you know what I didn't know? That Dave loves peppermint bark. Seriously, I've know him for over 15 years--you'd think I'd pick up on that. And he couldn't believe I'd never made it before. Know we're both wondering where he's been getting his fix all these years. But back to this bark: whip this up and you'll be able to break it up into deliciously big chunks, bag it up and share it as gifts--perfect for teachers, class treats, coworkers, anyone. Personally, I'm thinking some labor and delivery nurses might be the recipients of these treats--assuming our little guy arrives before Dave eats it all.

Mint and Dark Chocolate Blondies

Blondies are quickly becoming my go-to treat when I need to come up with a treat that will please a lot of people on a short amount of time.  Start to finish is under an hour and they are pretty versatile in terms of flavor.  For my weekly group meeting at work, I whipped up these flavorful bars the night before as a way to share the minty and chocolate combination that I can only get away with at Christmas or St. Patrick's Day.

These are based on the basic Blondies recipe I've used before, but kicked up with a change in extract and mix ins.  I baked them in a smaller pan to make thicker bars, which meant a slightly longer bake time.  I used a leftover bag of mint and dark chocolate chips from the winter holidays, but if you can't find those, just use 1/2 cup of dark chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of mint chips.  I suppose you could dress these up and add a little green food coloring to the batter, but I think they are cute enough as is.

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies

Remember last year when I made the White Peppermint Snowballs? They were ok, but kind of a disappointment.  So I looked for another recipe to incorporate peppermint candies into a holiday cookie and found these.  They are perfect and I'm glad I opted for chocolate chip version.  I like to use semi-sweet chocolates chips, but white chocolate would also probably be quite tasty.  Either way, the crushed peppermint candies provide a very nice twist to a chewy cookie and it has a nice holiday feel.  Dave liked how the cookie was flavored by the candies, rather than eating a cookie and running into a piece of candy mid-bite.

Jen at Beantown Baker posted this recipe and it's a great one.  Not having any bittersweet chocolate chips, I loaded mine completely with semi-sweet chips, but you can use any combination you'd like.  I resisted the urge to use any peppermint extract, which was the right call.  Any more peppermint flavor would have been too overwhelming.  I'm pretty sure these would be Santa approved and there's a good chance you've got some candy canes floating about right now, so what are you waiting for?

Mint Fudge Swirls

Mint.  Fudge.  Is there really any question about how good these are?  Little slices of heaven, might be the words.  I mean, it's actual fudge sauce.  And they are so pretty looking.  I make these almost every year, so when Dave saw what was going on in the kitchen, he was giddy with anticipation.  When I told him I needed actual words from him to describe them, I received the following, almost verbatim, stated with a mouthful of cookie, "Oooh, nomnomnomnom...good."  Ok, not almost verbatim, but pretty close.

Another Better Homes and Gardens recipe, I found this on MSN House and Home in 2002 under the title After Dinner Mint Cookies.  I first had to change the process of the recipe because I was ending up with a crumbly dough.  And the original recipe called for 1/2 cup of finely crushed Oreos as the filling.  I tried it that way once.  Not good results. The dough crumbled when I cut it and the crushed Oreos just didn't have the impact, so I ended up with a broken mint cookie with chocolate cookie crumbs.  Then I had a stroke of genius and thought, what if I swapped out the cookies for fudge sauce?  The result?  Perfection.  It's a soft cookie with a gooey fudginess (nope, not a word) and a perfect mint to chocolate ratio.  They are a crowd pleaser, which is why I have to make them every year.

Mint Fudge Spirals

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
1/4 teaspoon mint extract
3-6 drops green food coloring*
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup fudge sauce ice cream topping

*Remember last week when I noticed I didn't have any green food coloring?  Yeah, I forgot again, so I had to work my magic and make it green.  Boo for forgetfulness, yea for ingenuity!

Beat butter in a large mixing bowl on high.  Add sugar and baking powder and beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl as necessary.  Beat in egg, mint extract and food coloring.  I go for a light green color, but make it as dark as you want.  Note that the color will lighten slightly when you add the flour.

Beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer.  Use a wooden spoon to stir in any remaining flour.

If you are not using a stand mixer, don't even bother trying to beat in the flour.  It will just turn to a crumbly mess if you use a hand mixer to beat in some of the flour.  Stir it all in by hand, in batches.  If you do use a stand mixer, swap out your beater before adding the flour.  Instead of using the wire beater attachment, use the paddle attachment (or even the dough blade).  You want to get all the flour incorporated and create a cohesive dough that you can roll out.

Divide dough in half, form into discs and wrap in plastic wrap.  Chill in refrigerator about an hour or overnight.

Roll one disc between two sheets of waxed paper.  Now, the recipe says to roll "into an 8x7 inch rectangle" but if you saw my Almond Swirls post, you know how I feel about this.  Just roll the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and make it as reasonably even on the edges as possible. 

Peel off the top layer of waxed paper and spread on a layer of fudge sauce.  You don't want it too thick or it will ooze out during baking, but you don't want it too thin, either.  Generally, I put on enough so that I can just no longer see the dough underneath.

Starting at the bottom, roll up the dough jelly-roll style, removing bottom sheet of waxed paper as you go.

Pinch the edges to seal and fold over the ends.  Wrap in waxed paper and chill about 4 hours or overnight.  Repeat with second disc.

Remove one roll from the refrigerator and using your sharpest knife, cut the dough crosswise into 1/4 inch slices.  I like to cut the whole roll in half, and then work from the inside out.  Wipe the knife occasionally to remove any excess dough or fudge.  When you get to the ends, keep cutting, even it the spiral is weak or doesn't have much fudge to it.  Unlike the Almond Swirls, you generally don't need to repair cookies or create spirals where there were none. Since you only have one piece of dough, the fudge sauce acts as a really good glue.  At worst, if you tuck in the ends of your dough after you'd rolled it up, you'll just have some mint cookies with minimal fudge in them.  They're still tasty extras for the baker!

Place cookies on an ungreased or parchment/silicone lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 8-9 minutes.  You want to catch these cookies just before the edges turn brown because you don't want that to impact the pretty color.  Turn baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through. If using more than one sheet at a time, rotate positions in the oven for more even baking.  Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then move to complete cooling on rack.

Remove these carefully because the cookie will be set before the fudge sauce is cool, so you don't want to pull to hard and break the cookie.  Just be patient and gentle.

Makes 5 1/2 dozen.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

White Peppermint Snowballs

Not so much on the "ball" part of snowballs, huh?  Well, it's my fault. I'm not going to call this one a flop because a) I didn't actually follow the recipe to the letter, and b) these still taste pretty good.  They're pretty sweet, thanks to added powdered sugar, but I'll hold off on recommending any changes to the recipe until I actually follow it.  Dave thought I could do either just crushed peppermints on top or just in the dough, but that doing both was too much. I disagreed, but it's an interesting concept.

This recipes comes from Food Network's Sandra Lee, queen of Semi-Homemade.  Her recipe says to use refrigerated sugar cookie dough.  For whatever reason I believed I could just substitute a television cooking personality and be just as perfect, so I used a package of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix and the called for butter and egg.  I think the slightly chilled dough (as well as the consistency of the refrigerated stuff) probably helps the dough retain a ball-like shape, since mine, well, didn't.  I also rolled my cookies in the powdered sugar before baking (Sandra Lee says to roll them after baking while they are still warm).  I wasn't in the mood to handle warm cookies.  Again, guess that's why I have a blog and she's on TV.  So yeah, I'll be making these again, the right way, and I'll let you know how it goes.

White Peppermint Snowballs

Ingredients

1 17.5 ounce package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/3 cup crushed peppermint candies, plus more for garnishing
1 cup powdered sugar, divided

In a bowl, combine sugar cookie mix, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and butter.  I like to cut the butter in with a pastry blender and then use a wooden spoon or spatula to fully combine.

Not sure how many peppermint candies to crush?  I used 15 which was fine for the dough, but I needed to brush more for garnish.  Unwrap candies and put in a plastic zip top bag.  Put bag on top of a flexible cutting mat and go at it with a meat mallet (or a heavy can of beans or something.)  Measure out 1/3 cup.

Add egg, peppermint extract and crushed peppermint candies.  If your dough isn't coming together, keep working it, adding a splash (up to 1 Tablespoon) of milk, until combined.

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls.

Roll balls in remaining 1/2 cup powdered sugar.

On a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet, arrange balls about 2 inches apart.

Bake at 350 degree F for 8-10 minutes. Turn baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through. If using more than one sheet at a time, rotate positions in the oven for more even baking.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with additional crushed peppermint candies while still warm.  Allow to cool slightly on pans and then move to wire rack to complete cooling.

Makes 4 dozen.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess  

Mint Chocolate Chip

What pretty little festive yummies do we have here?  A little mint and chocolate to satisfy those Andes Mint cravings.  I actually wanted to use the Andes Mint creme de menthe baking chips, but I couldn't find them in any of my grocery stores this year.  Disappointing, but I did find a good alternative--Nestle's morsels with mint chips and dark chocolate chips mixed together.

This recipe comes from the Betty Crocker website and is another cookie mix based creation and a 2010 prize winner.  A strong mint flavor and a kick from the dark chocolate in a soft cookie makes for a great treat.  I did add a splash of milk to the recipe to help my dough come together better (I don't think my butter was soft enough).  I really like how easily these came together--makes for a quick dessert to take to a holiday gathering or a fast homemade gift for someone who suddenly popped on your list.

Mint Chocolate Chip

1 pouch (17.5 ounces) Better Crocker sugar cookie mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
6-8 drops green food coloring*
1 egg
1 package (12 ounces) creme de mente and dark chocolate chips

*I realized when I was getting this recipe together that apparently I was out of green food coloring.  Who knows how many months it had been--probably since last Christmas.  Nonetheless, the ever-resilient baker that I am, I recalled my primary colors lessons from Kindergarten and successfully used yellow and blue coloring to make green.  

In a large bowl, stir cookie mix and butter (I use a pastry cutter at first, then stir).  Add extract, food coloring and egg, stirring until a soft dough forms. If you're having trouble, add a splash of milk (no more than a Tablespoon).  Stir in the chips.

On a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet, drop by spoonfuls (I use a small cookie scoop) about 2 inches apart.

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Turn baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through. If using more than one sheet at a time, rotate positions in the oven for more even baking.

Cool on pans for 2 minutes then remove to wire racks to complete cooling.

Makes 4 dozen.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

Peppermint Pattie Pillows

I like alliteration.

Pillow cookies are those that have a surprise inside.  I'm not sure why they are called pillows and not something more appropriate, like treasure chests or candy holders, but there you are. I suppose I could have called them Peppermint Pattie Surprises, but as already stated, I like alliteration.

This recipe was found at Hershey's Kitchens on the Hershey website.  The only thing I modified was the size (I opted to cut the patties in half to get more cookies), which then caused me to modify the bake time.  These are super yummy, and very minty.  I considered adding peppermint extract to the dough, but didn't.  And it's a good thing because as rich as a chocolate is, any more peppermint might have been overload.

Peppermint Pattie Pillows

Ingredients:
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
24 York Peppermint Patties (They are pictured in the zip top bag. I got ahead of myself and took all the wrappers off while watching TV before I remembered I hadn't taken the ingredient photo.) 
colored sugar for decorating (not shown)

Beat butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until creamed.  Add egg, milk and vanilla, blending thoroughly.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.  Add to creamed mixture, blending well.  Refrigerate dough for about one hour or until firm (dough will be a little soft).

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly grease cookie sheet or line with parchment paper or silicone liners.  Remove wrappers from candies and cut in half.

Roll dough into 1 inch balls, then flatten ball.

Press candy into dough and mold dough around candy so it is completely covered.

 

Dip into colored sugar and place on prepared cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookie is set.  Turn baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through. If using more than one sheet at a time, rotate positions in the oven for more even baking.  Cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then move to complete cooling on rack.

Makes 3 1/2 dozen cookies.
(What's that? You have York Peppermint Patties leftover?  I think you can figure that out all on your own.)

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess