It has been a cold, snowy weekend in the Northeast United States, and if you remember a certain ad campaign, that cold, snowy feeling should make you think of a particular candy. These cookies were a happy accident during my holiday baking last year, and considering that several people asked for the recipe, I think we can count them a success.
I don’t have a travel memory to go with the taste of peppermint patties, so let’s just get right to the cookies.
The base for these was my go-to chocolate crackles recipe in the Martha Stewart’s Cookies cookbook. The recipe recommends rolling the cookie dough balls in granulated sugar before rolling them in powdered sugar in order to keep a nice coating of the powdered sugar on the finished cookie. I had pulverized far more crystal mints hard candies than I needed for some stained-glass window cookies, and I hate to waste, so I thought I’d use those pulverized candies in place of the granulated sugar. The result was a cookie that tastes a lot like a peppermint patty.
If you try this, use the really strong crystal mint hard candies, and crush them in your food processor until they are about the texture of granulated sugar, or finer. You don’t want a lot of large chunks because the candies melt when baked, and that will give your cookies an uneven finish. When I crush the candies specifically for this purpose next time, there will not be as many large chunks as there are in the picture below.
After rolling dough balls in the crushed mints, you roll them in powdered sugar. Be sure to get a very thick coating of powdered sugar on these. I’m going to say it again, the mint candies melt, and you could end up with quite the mess, or at the very least cookies stuck to things as they cool, if you do not get a good thick coating of powdered sugar over the candy layer.
When the cookies cool, the hard candies get hard again, so you end up with a very thin, slightly crunchy coating between the powdered sugar and the soft cookie interior on these.
Peppermint Patty Cookies
Course: cookiesIngredients
8 ounces dark/bittersweet chocolate chips. I used the Guittard extra dark, 63%
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder. My preference is King Arthur’s Double-Dutch Dark, but it has been out of stock for several weeks. An alternative is the Guittard Cocoa Rouge mixed with a bit of the King Arthur Black Cocoa. Do not go too heavy on the black cocoa, though. I would suggest about two tablespoons of the 1/2 cup.
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter – room temperature
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar – packed
2 large eggs – room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup whole milk
1 cup crushed crystal mints hard candies
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
Directions
- Melt chocolate in metal bowl over a pan of gently simmering water until melted. Set aside to cool.
- Gently (don’t get cocoa everywhere) whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Most recipes would say sift for this step, and sifting certainly works. I prefer to whisk well rather than getting cocoa all through a sifter. Just make sure to break up any chunks of cocoa if you whisk.
- With paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, and combine thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla and mix. Then add the melted chocolate, and mix thoroughly again. (be careful that you do not let the chocolate cool too much, or it might harden some onto your bowl in this step, You want it cool enough that it will not melt the butter, but not so cool that it quickly hardens when hitting the room temperature ingredients and mixer bowl).
- Reduce mixer speed to low. Mix in 1/2 the flour, then 1/2 the milk, then remaining flour, and remaining milk. Mix until just combined.
- Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Wrap each piece in plastic. Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours, until firm.
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Working with one piece of dough at a time, using small scoop if you have one to portion, form the dough into 1 inch balls – each portion makes about 16 balls. Roll the balls into the crushed mint candies, then in the powdered sugar. Coat very thoroughly during each rolling step.
- Space coated dough balls about 2 inches apart on prepared backing sheets.
- Bake one tray at a time on middle rack in oven until the surfaces have cracked, about 14 minutes. Do not overbake.
- Let the cookies cool on sheets on wire racks for about 10 minutes before removing from sheets to cool completely on racks.
- Cookies can be stored in airtight containers for several days.