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Soft and chewy, just like a chocolate chip cookie should be–these Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies are your new favorite Christmas Cookie! Take these to the cookie exchange–or save them for yourself–loaded with candy canes and lots of chips, they will make Santa extra happy!
– Originally posted December 2018. Photos updated November 2020. –
As soon as the holiday season hits, all I want is chocolate and peppermint–and I will take it just about any way I can get it.
These peppermint chip cookies, fully of crushed up candy canes have become a tradition the past several years, and it wouldn’t be Christmas without them.
Why we love these peppermint chip cookies so much:
- They take a classic and give it a holiday kick! Who can resist a chocolate chip cookie? And giving them a little bit of Christmas cheer just makes them more fun over the holiday season.
- These are super kid friendly. Get the kids in the kitchen. Oh what fun it is to CRUSH UP CANDY CANES! I can’t promise things won’t get messy though.
- They are delish! I mean, isn’t that the reason we bake cookies??
These Peppermint Chip Cookies are bound to become a family favorite in your house very soon. Grab some milk and get ready!
What you will need:
- butter: I use unsalted butter. Salted butter will work too, just half the amount of salt added later. Softened to room temperature, but not too soft that if you press into it, it is very mushy. Just enough to press a finger print into.
- brown sugar: light brown sugar is what we use.
- sugar: classic, granulated sugar
- egg: a large egg
- flour: all purpose flour, if you can measure the weight, that is ideal. If not, stir the flour to aerate and then spoon and level into the measuring cup for best results. It is very easy to over measure flour especially if you scoop the measuring cup right into the flour.
- baking soda: make sure it is fresh. Expired baking soda can cause your cookies to be the opposite of a success!
- sea salt: regular salt will work as well, we just prefer sea salt
- vanilla: extract is preference here. You can also add a touch (1/4- 1/2 teaspoon) of peppermint extract for more mint flavor.
- candy canes (or peppermint candies if not in season)
- dark and white chocolate chips–or any combo you prefer!
How to make this recipe:
- Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat to incorporate.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the salt, flour and baking soda. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix only to incorporate. You don’t want to over mix at this point.
- Once the flour is incorporated, fold in the chocolate chips and crushed candy canes.
- Chill until ready to bake or scoop onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake!
Check out some of my cookie baking tips and FAQs here before you start baking these cookies!
Notes and Pro-Tips:
- Too much candy cane near the edges of the cookie will run. Now this is the only issue I have with these cookies and I have been able to figure out a way for the most part to help keep the candy cane from running in all directions. When you scoop the cookies onto the cookie sheet, check around the edges to see if there are any big pieces of candy cane. If there are, either pull them out or try to press them into the dough. Having the candy cane run doesn’t ruin the cookie–it just doesn’t look quite as pretty!
- When in doubt, crush the candy canes REALLY SMALL. This will alleviate most issues with candy canes running. Just skip the big chunks–you will still love these!
- Chilling cookie dough is always a great idea. It helps to solidify the fats in the cookie so that when baking it takes longer for them to soften. No time to chill? Not the end of the world, but there will be a difference in the chewiness of the cookie.
- Always, always ALWAYS make sure that your baking soda is fresh. Old or expired baking soda can make your cookies flat. No one wants a flat cookie!
- I tried to make these simple to double the batch if you are wanting to make more to share with the people you love! I have made double the batch several times with great results!
- All the chips! The key to the best chocolate chip cookies is extra chips, right? Add whatever you like! I always end up throwing extra in and so can you! I loved the chocolate chunks I found at the store to add some extra texture. Chips are great as well!
- Candy canes are great, but peppermint candies will work fine if it is not candy cane season.
Enjoy these Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies and all of your favorite treats this season and beyond!
Other Holiday Treats:
- Nutella Stuffed Ritz Cracker Cookies with Peppermint White Chocolate
- Cream Cheese Snowball Cookies
- One Bowl Small Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Christmas Golden Oreo Truffles
- Snickerdoodle Cheesecake Stuffed Crescent Wreath
- Dark Chocolate Candy Cane Pretzel Bark
- Dark Chocolate Peppermint Puppy Chow
- Individual Cranberry Orange Crisps
- Maple Vanilla Spiced Pecans Recipe
- Nutella Crumble Bars
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Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Dark and white chocolate chips, and candy canes make these Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies such a perfect treat to celebrate the holidays!
Ingredients
- ½ c unsalted butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1 ½ c flour (204 g)* see note, **If doubling the recipe, please see notes for grams!!
- ½ c sugar
- ⅓ c brown sugar, packed firmly
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¾ c white chocolate chips
- ¾ c dark or regular chocolate chips
- 5 candy canes, crushed into fine pieces, about 1/4 cup plus a tablespoon
Instructions
- Using a hand or standing mixer, cream butter, sugar and brown sugar until nice and creamy. (Mix for at least 3-4 minutes –don't skip this part!*)Add in vanilla and egg and beat until incorporated. You don't want to over do this part or cookies will be stiff. Just enough until the egg is mixed in (about 20 seconds.)
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, sea salt and baking soda. Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients until combined.
- Stir in chocolate chips and candy canes.
- Chill the dough for about 30-60 minutes, seal tightly and chill up to 3 days before baking. (Allow to sit out 10-15 minutes before you bake them if you chill longer than about 2 hours.)
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Roll dough into balls or use a cookie scoop and line on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes or until cookies look slightly golden. When cookies come out of the oven, you can "pull them together" by putting a circle cookie cutter or biscuit cutter around each cookie and gently scoot them to form nice round cookies. Do not overbake your cookies–pull them out just before you think they are done.
- Allow to cool for several minutes before transferring to your mouth–er, a cooling rack.
Video
Notes
*Flour weight conversions are not universal. I researched this thoroughly finding one cup of flour to weight anywhere from 120g to 150 g. I tested several weights and found that 204 grams seemed ideal for this recipe. That is on the heavier side with one cup weighing about 136 grams. If you are not using a scale, keep an extra tablespoon or two of flour just in case.
*Make sure to cream the butter and sugar for at least 3 minutes. When creaming butter and sugar, air pockets are created. If your butter is too warm at the start, or if you don’t cream for long enough, you can end up with super flat cookies.
**If doubling the recipe: the calculator will NOT automatically double or triple the grams of flour. If doubling, you will need 408 grams of flour and if tripling, use 612 grams of flour.
- Too much candy cane near the edges of the cookie will run. Now this is the only issue I have with these cookies and I have been able to figure out a way for the most part to help keep the candy cane from running in all directions. When you scoop the cookies onto the cookie sheet, check around the edges to see if there are any big pieces of candy cane. If there are, either pull them out or try to press them into the dough. Having the candy cane run doesn’t ruin the cookie–it just doesn’t look quite as pretty!
- When in doubt, crush the candy canes REALLY SMALL. This will alleviate most issues with candy canes running. Just skip the big chunks–you will still love these!
- Chilling cookie dough is always a great idea. It helps to solidify the fats in the cookie so that when baking it takes longer for them to soften. No time to chill? Not the end of the world, but there will be a difference in the chewiness of the cookie.
- If dough is chilled and cookies are spreading a lot, add 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour to help them hold their shape better. If flour is just slightly off, it can make a big difference in the amount the cookies hold together.
Nutrition
Calories: 152kcal, Carbohydrates: 20g, Protein: 2g, Fat: 7g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Cholesterol: 19mg, Sodium: 121mg, Potassium: 31mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 14g, Vitamin A: 141IU, Calcium: 24mg, Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did you enjoy this recipe? Have a question?Leave a comment below!
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I just finished making these cookies and they turned out awesome, instead of using candy canes I used Brachs crushed candy canes just measured the amount to use and was easy. Thanks for sharing this recipe
What a great idea! Going to do the same when I make them later this week!
Cooking time inaccurate. Not impressed. 🙁
Sorry to hear—would love more info! Not all ovens heat quite the same so there could also be some sort of issue with that even possibly?
Hi! I just made these with mini holiday baking chips (red and green) and Hershey chocolate chips. I doubled the recipe and the amount of the candy cane didn’t change so I doubled it from the first amount. Was that correct?
Even after pulling back on the amount of chips I put in there (only 3/4 c of the holiday chips v 1.5 c) it seemed like a lot of stuff for the structure of the cookie. They tasted good and my kids loved them but I also found them a bit greasy coming off the trays. Any thoughts?
I chilled the dough for about 20 minutes and that seemed to be a good amount as I couldn’t have scooped them out otherwise.
Very festive recipe and one I’d like to perfect!
Hi Brenda! I just hit the 2x on the recipe for doubling and the candy cane amount doubled so I assume it could have been a glitch. I think I may need to test these again for a double batch as it could just be a matter of a bit too much candy cane. The melting of the the candy while baking can cause the cookies to run a bit around the edges and can be the cause of the greasiness. I try to make sure no big pieces of candy cane are close the the side of the balls of cookies that could run. I am going to test these with 3/4 the amount of candy cane for a double recipe and see what happens. Also, I wonder if the red and green morsels were an issue. I read some reviews on the Nestle site and many said they ruined their cookies–not sure if that may be part of it??
This is a keeper of a recipe- following the recipe exactly resulted in soft, chewy bites of cookie with chewy candy cane and bites of sweet, savory and creamy white and dark chocolate chips. Love, love, love this recipe! thank you for sharing! I look forward to sharing with friends and family!
Yay!! So happy you enjoyed these so much! We make several batches every holiday season and they are always a huge hit!
I made these 2 times this week. The first time I melted the butter and only used semi-sweet chips. They turned out perfectly! The second time I made them I used white and semi sweet chips. I also just softened the butter to room temp, rather than melted. Both times I chilled the dough for about 10-15 minutes before baking. The second batch flattened into greasy flat cookies! I’m not sure if it was the white chocolate chips, or some other strange phenomenon, but they were a totally different cookie. Any thoughts? Thanks!
Hi Emily! That is so so interesting! One of the biggest things that can make a big difference without you really knowing is flour measurement. Even just a touch too little flour can flatten things out. The difference in using the melted butter versus the softened butter likely impacted it some as well but it surprises me the softened butter turned out so flat. Unless the butter was a bit too soft? I am hoping this was just a random fluke of some sort!
Outstanding. Some of the best cookies I have ever made or even eaten. I think they possibly taste better on the second day when all the flavors have had a chance to meld together. My only change was to skip the candy canes and use Andy’s creme de menthe baking chips in their place. My taste testers were swooning. And, the baker (me) had to stop sneaking more samples. Thank you, thank you.
So so glad to hear this! Where did you find the Andes chips?? I was looking for them not long ago and could not find them anywhere. Maybe I need to look now that the holiday season is over.
In the process of baking these right now! These are absolutely wonderful. I saw were the dough can be frozen dough. Good to know! Will the baked cookies also freeze well?
Celebrating a late Christmas and was going to wait til my grandsons (11 & 9) were here…glad I’m not! They would have just eaten the dough!!! Thanks so very much and Happy New Year!!
I freeze the baked cookies all the time. They last a couple months for us—well when we don’t eat them first! So happy to hear you all enjoyed them!
Hi Lorie!
These are amazing, and will be a Christmas cookie staple from now on!! These are better than Trader Joe’s Peppermint Chocolate Cookie mix.
I’m sure it’s not your recipe but an error on my part. Why are my cookies coming out flat, and not like the cookies pictured? This will not keep me from making them again, I’m just wondering what I did wrong????
Oh wow! Better than Trader Joe’s?!! That is huge. So here are a couple of things. First, chill them for an hour and see if that helps. Warm dough is the biggest culprit. Also, make sure your butter is not too soft when you start out. It should not easily press down like play-do, but rather still have a bit of firmness to it. Check to make sure your baking soda is super fresh as that can cause any baked good to flatten. If all else fails, try adding an extra tablespoon or two of flour. Hope all of this helps!
These are absolutely fabulous! I’ve made them twice and they turned out great! They didn’t last long with my family. We only had mini candy canes, so I used 10 of them. Cooked up really well both times. Thanks!
Thanks so so much Teresa! Just pulled a few from the freezer tonight! Can’t get enough!
Hey I was just wondering, I don’t have big candy canes, how many small ones would u say?
Hi! I would aim to do enough to get about 1/3-1/2 cup. I think about 10 or so should be fine!