Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies

If you like chocolate and peppermint, these cookies are for you.  Fairly easy to whump up, this recipe makes about two and a half dozen.  These aren’t cloyingly sweet like a lot of other cookies.  I used a little less butter, which makes for a puffier cookie, the kind seen in these pictures.  If you like them chewier, use the full amount of butter, and bake for only about eight minutes.

Beautiful Granddaughter helped me make these, and her main job was to grind the candy cane with a mortar and pestle.  (We stole the candy cane from the Christmas tree, after tasting it to make sure it was peppermint flavoured, and not something weird, like butter rum.)

I used these chocolate bits, but small chips work too.

¾ cup soft butter

1 cup jaggery or brown sugar

1 teaspoon canola oil

¼ cup molasses

1 egg

2 teaspoons peppermint extract

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon coarse salt

4 tablespoons cocoa

3 tablespoons chocolate bits (or small chocolate chips)

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 candycane, crushed

2 teaspoons sugar (maybe more)  

Oven at 375 F  Thirty minutes to prepare, if no refrigeration time needed.  Eight to ten minutes to bake and another ten to cool.  Makes two and a half dozen.

In a mixer, whip the butter on high speed.  Add the jaggery or sugar, and whip till well combined and fluffy.  Pour the oil into a measuring cup and spread it around well.  Pour the molasses into the cup, and then let it slide into the mixing bowl.  Whip again till well combined.  Add the egg, then whip some more.  Add the peppermint. 

Beat slowly once dry ingredients are added.

With the machine turned off, add the cocoa, chocolate bits, salt, baking soda, and flour.  Turn the machine on slowly, and beat till combined.  You’ll need to turn the machine on and off, using a spatula to push the dough down toward the blades, making sure your dough is well blended, but with the least amount of beating.  Turn the oven on to 375 F to warm up while you complete these next steps.

With clean hands, pull a small amount of dough out of the bowl, and roll into a ball, using the palm of your hands.  Our kitchen was a bit on the cool side, and the dough was easy to handle.  If your dough is too sticky, refrigerate it for at least twenty minutes and it should be okay for the hand rolling.  Roll in the ground candycane and sugar mix, then place on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.  Place each ball of dough about three inches away from the other, as these will spread out during cooking.  If you use the full amount of butter, they may spread even further.  Bake for between eight to ten minutes.  Remove from cookie sheet and let cool on a rack. 

They'll be prettiest if topping is actually on top!

I intend to eat these cookies with a peppermint candy and chocolate crackle ice-cream I purchased at a certain large grocery store that contains the word “Canadian” in its name.  They will go equally well with milk, tea or coffee.  Not overly sweet, and more substantial than cookies made with white flour, these chocolate peppermint crinkle cookies will delight your sweet tooth.

Yum, lots to snack on and give away!