Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies

White and dark chocolate chip cookie with candy cane pieces.

4.89 from 154 votes

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!

Prep Time15

Cook Time10

Chill30

Total Time30

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: cookies

Calories: 152kcal

Author: Lorie Yarro

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 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ c white chocolate chips
¾ c dark or regular chocolate chips
5 candy canes, crushed into fine pieces about ¼ 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