I tried to fight this whole Christmas cookie rampage that’s been happening the entire month of December on social media but I couldn’t do it anymore! As anyone who knows me knows, baking is not my strong suit, so when that’s what’s popular I tend to struggle a little. However, I truly think I actually held my own with these Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Shortbread Cookies.
These cookies are fantastic! I brought them to work and they got eaten up in a day. Andrew took a week to eat them because he was intentionally savoring them. Now, you can easily modify these if you’re not a fan of peppermint and just remove the extract and use a different candy for the dipping. But there’s just something about peppermint that screams holidays to me so I had to go there! You guys get it right?
I also included easy vegan modifications to this but I had to use real butter on my cookies here personally. It just gives it that melt in your mouth texture that I’m looking for in a shortbread cookie! Besides butter is back now, and it’s a healthy fat, I’m not real sure yet if I buy that one but might as well go along with it now.
The final plug I’ll give for these cookies is that they’re obviously suuuuuper pretty and still festive without having to use cookie cutters. So if you’re not sitting on a pile of snowflake and gingerbread man templates, you can make these! They’re fun, festive and absolutely delicious. And they require much less time than attempting to decorate a cookie with frosting!
Please comment below and subscribe if you like this recipe! We will be traveling to Detroit for the holidays this weekend so keep an eye on our Instagram feed for some Detroit fun and food!
Happy Holidays,
Jackie & Andrew
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Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Shortbread Cookies
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 18 cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Vegetarian, Vegan, Holiday
Description
Fun, festive and delicious, these Chocolate Dipped Peppermint Shortbread Cookies are the perfect easy yet still pretty Christmas Cookies.
Ingredients
Scale
- Cookies
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup cane sugar
- 1/2 powdered sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened (*see notes for vegan)
- 2 eggs* (see notes for vegan)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Topping
- 1 cup dark chocolate
- 2 tbs coconut oil or butter
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- 2 cups peppermint candy or candy cane, crushed
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, butter, both types of sugar, vanilla extract and peppermint extract until it becomes creamy. Sift the flour and baking soda into another large bowl, add the apple cider vinegar and whisk until combined.
- Now, start adding the dry ingredients into the sugar and butter mix stirring as you go to incorporate it. This is easiest with a paddle attachment on a stand mixer but you can also do it with a spoon or spatula, just takes a little more muscle. Continue until all the dry ingredients are gone and this becomes a dough. It will be very thick.
- Remove the dough from the bowl, cut the dough ball in half and you’re going to roll each half into two logs about 1 inch around and 6 inches long. It will look like those cookie dough rolls you get from a store. You’re then going to take the dough and slice the cookies off it, go slow so as not to mash them. Slice the cookies about 1/2 thick and place them onto the baking sheet, they will spread quite a bit so make sure they’re separated.
- Bake at 350 for ten minutes or until they start to slightly brown on the bottom. Set the cookies aside on a cooling rack and allow them to cool for about 10 minutes.
- While the cookies are cooling, prepare your dipping ingredients. Melt the coconut oil or butter, whatever you’re using, in a small pot over medium-low heat. Add the chocolate and sea salt into the pan. Melt the chocolate whisking frequently so that it doesn’t burn. When the chocolate is melted, add the peppermint extract. In a small bowl, crush the candy cane or mint candies. It’s okay if there’s some chunks but it should generally be a powder.
- When the cookies are cooled, dip half of them into the melted chocolate and then sprinkle the peppermint candies over it. Set them back onto the parchment paper. After dipping the cookies, place them into the fridge and cool for several hours until the chocolate hardens. Enjoy!
Notes
*For vegan, make two flax eggs by mixing 2 tbs of flax seed with 2 tbs and water and allowing it to thicken.
*If you’re vegan I recommend substituting vegan butter for the cookies instead of coconut oil so they have that buttery flavor. But for the chocolate sauce I actually like the coconut oil best.
