Santa will love these Dark Chocolate Salted Peppermint Cookies after his whoosh down the chimney this year! 🎄They are a holiday take-off on our Double Chocolate Toasted Pecan Cookies, which are made with cocoa powder, dark chocolate chips and dusted with Himalayan pink salt and are sooooooo divine! This holiday version is make with dark mint chocolate chunks and candy cane sprinkles in place of the chocolate chips and pecans. And, the dusting of salt is the perfect accent! We love the way the dark mint chocolate chunks melt into the cookie to create little rivers of chocolate when they’re fresh out of the oven!
We weren’t so sure that crushed candy canes and salt would pair well together, but it’s an amazing combination and one that tones down the super strong flavor of peppermint. We are beginning to think that cookies need a touch of salt on top, but don’t take our word for it, try making these cookies to see what you think! We’d love to hear how they turn out for you.
The cookies turn out perfectly every time when you use a cookie scoop. We use the #50 (or 1.5 tablespoon) which turn out cookies about 2 1/4 inches in diameter. But if you love bigger cookies, by all means, use the scoop you like best. You can also simply drop the dough by the spoonful onto the baking sheet, if you don’t have a scoop! These cookies store well in an airtight container, but if you want them to taste like oven-fresh a few days later, simply heat them for about 10 seconds and you’ll think they are freshly baked!
Double Chocolate Salted Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg beaten
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder we love Valrhona Dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup chopped dark mint chocolate (We use at least 60% cacao dark mint chocolate bars and chop them up for the chocolate chunks:)
- 3/4 cup crushed peppermint candy Many stores sell these already crushed at this time of year. But if not, crush your own candy canes for the topping.
- 1 salt grinder sea salt or Pink Himalayan salt for topping
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Place your dark mint chocolate candy bar on a cutting board and cut with a chef’s knife into chunks. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, cream together butter with brown and granulated sugar with an electric beater until fluffy. Stir in vanilla. Add beaten egg and stir into mixture until very well incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together all dries: flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add dries to the butter-egg mixture and beat until well mixed. Stir in dark chocolate mint chunks
- With an ice cream scoop, make rounds of dough and place on a prepared baking sheet, 12 at a time.
- Roll the tops of each cookie dough ball into a bowl of the peppermint sprinkles.
- Grind sea salt over each cookie and bake for 10-11 minutes, or until set in the center. Remove from oven and cool completely before lifting off of the baking sheet. Or, if you are using parchment paper, just slide the paper with the cookies on top onto a cooling rack.
- Once cookies are completely cooled, store in an airtight container.
