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It’s almost time for holiday cookie exchanges and parties, and these Minty Holiday Cookies are pretty, delicious, and a little bit out of the ordinary. Plus, I’m giving you links to twelve more great holiday cookie recipes!
What’s better than one great holiday cookie recipe? How about a dozen? I’m part of a holiday cookie blog hop of fantastic cookie recipes that will give you plenty of choices for your holiday cookie baking, no matter what your tastes. You can find the entire list near the bottom of this post, right above my recipe for Minty Holiday Cookies. Thanks so much to Natasha Nicholes of Houseful of Nicholes for organizing the #HousefulOfCookies blog hop, and for including me!
It’s *really* a little cake!
Have you ever had a black and white cookie? They’re not really cookies. They’re more like very flat cakes. They have a hint of lemon, and are covered with chocolate and vanilla icing. And while those are delicious any time of year, I’m putting a minty spin on them for the holidays.
There are a million recipes out there for black and white cookies, but I use this one from Brown Eyed Baker (for the cake part, anyway). I’ve changed it up a bit for these holiday cookies, of course, because the original is flavored with lemon and vanilla, and I want these to be peppermint.
The batter
It’s very important that you don’t overmix the batter, or the cookies will turn out tough.
It is absolutely possible and easy to portion out the batter with two spoons. However, if you want to get every cookie the same size, I recommend using a cookie scoop. I love the Oxo scoops, and the medium one makes exactly 60 cookies from one batch of this recipe. I make sure to scrape the scoop flat against the side of my mixing bowl to ensure each scoop is equal.
In the directions, I say to put 2 inches between each cookie. They spread out a lot while baking and you don’t want them to touch each other. However, if you’re careful, you can put them a little closer and fit 15 cookies on a half-sheet pan and bake all 60 cookies in two rounds in the oven. When I’m doing a ton of cookies, I like to live dangerously by putting 20 cookies on each pan and baking three pans at a time.
Baking
I give instructions for making two pans of cookies at a time, but if your oven can handle three pans and bake them evenly, go for it! Just make sure you rotate them halfway, both turning each one front to back and moving them to different shelves.
When it’s time to move the cookies from the pans to the cooling racks, don’t scrape them off of the parchment paper with a spatula—it will make crumbs, and they’ll get into the chocolate topping later. Carefully peel the cookies off of the paper by hand, being careful not to touch the hot pan!
Decorating
You can decorate these cookies with red and green sugar for Christmas, blue for Hanukkah, or any other color you like!
You can dip the cookies in chocolate chips or white chocolate chips, but I absolutely love the Bada Bing Bada Boom Melting Chocolate from Chocoley.
I always use Wilton candy melting pots when I’m dipping anything in chocolate. They make it so super easy! You don’t have to worry about getting water in the chocolate from a double boiler or over-cooking it in a microwave. You can even buy an extra insert so that you can have two different kinds of chocolate going at the same time!
I usually dip half of the batch in dark chocolate, and the other half in white chocolate. The sprinkles don’t really show up well on the dark chocolate, so I drizzle some of the white chocolate onto those to make them pretty. Or, if you don’t want to use sprinkles, you could dip the cookies in white chocolate, then add some food coloring to the remaining white chocolate and drizzle that on top.
Last, these can be eaten as soon as the chocolate dries out and hardens a little. However, if you’re going to stack them on a platter or in a box, try to let them dry for about 8 hours or overnight. Otherwise, the weight of the other cookies can crack the chocolate.
Holiday Rich Butter Cookies – Houseful Of Nicholes
Rolo Pretzel Cookies – Creating Really Awesome Fun Things
Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies – Ashley & Co
Scottish Shortbread Christmas Cookie Wedges – Albion Gould
Loaded Oatmeal Raisin Cookies – This Worthey Life
Brown Sugar Shortbread – Eat Picks
Pretty Decorated Sugar Cookies – 100 Directions
Christmas Rose Cookies – Divas With A Purpose
Nutella Brownie Cookies – Big Green Pen
Norwegian Cookies – Kringla – Little Family Adventure
Cake Mix Christmas Cookies – Mom Generations
These pretty cookies are based on cake-like Black and White cookies, with a colorful twist. Decorate with any color you like, for any holiday!
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 4 cups cake flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1¾ cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 cup whole milk
For the decoration:
- 3 cups dark or white dipping chocolate
- 3/4 tsp peppermint extract
- colorful decorating sugar
Instructions
Baking
- Place oven racks in positions above and below middle position
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, salt, and baking powder; set aside
- In a stand mixer beat the butter at medium speed for 30 seconds; while the mixer is still running, add the granulated sugar gradually; increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the eggs and the peppermint extract; beat at medium speed for about 30 seconds, until combined; scrape the bowl again
- With the mixer on low speed, alternate between adding the flour (in 4 additions) and the milk (in 3 additions) and mix until just combined; carefully stir the mixture with a rubber spatula, to make sure that all flour has been incorporated from the sides and bottom of bowl, but do not stir any more than necessary
- Using a 1.5-inch cookie scoop or two spoons, space mounds of dough 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets (if you're using spoons, the dough should be in a dome shape and measure about 1.75" across)
- Bake until the edges of the cookies are starting to brown, about 16 minutes (the tops and sides should still be pale), rotating the pans halfway and switching shelves
- Let the cookies cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheets, then carefully peel them off of the parchment paper (watch out for the hot pan!) and move them to wire racks to cool the rest of the way
- Let the cookie sheets cool until you can touch them with your bare fingers and repeat the baking process until you've used all of the batter (or, if you have extra cookie sheets, you don't have to wait!)
Decorating
- When cookies are completely cool (after about 15 minutes on the cooling rack), place them on fresh parchment paper with at least an inch between each cookie
- Melt your dipping chocolate over a double boiler or in a chocolate melting pot
- Stir in the peppermint extract (if you're using different kinds of chocolate, I use 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint per 1 cup of chocolate)
- Holding a cookie upside-down by its edges, dip it into the chocolate, then shake it back and forth gently until the extra drips off; flip the cookie right-side up, and put it on the parchment paper
- For the cookies dipped in white chocolate, sprinkle on some colored sugar immediately after dipping, or follow the next instruction, but using dark chocolate instead
- For the cookies dipped in dark chocolate, let them dry a bit (10 or 15 minutes should do it), then drizzle on some white chocolate by dipping a knife tip into melted white chocolate and shaking it back and forth over the cookie
- Let icing dry and harden before serving (let it dry overnight if you want to stack the cookies)
- Eat within about two days of baking the cookies
Notes
These cookies taste good for about two days stored in an airtight container at room temperature. After that, the cookie might taste a little stale (remember, they're actually tiny cakes!), so don't make them too far in advance!