Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies

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These Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies are a super festive and delicious Christmas treat! They’re perfect for your holiday cookie plate!

Want another delicious peppermint dessert? You’ll fall in love with my Peppermint Pretzel Crunch!

Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies on a plate

Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies

So my small group did the sweetest thing Wednesday night – they threw me a little surprise 30th celebration! I was told it was our Christmas get together, but instead we had cake, balloons and champagne. 🙂

Not knowing what they were planning though, I suggested doing White Elephant last weekend and sent out an email about it. It ended up kind of funny because the hubs was trying to have it be about my birthday, rather than Christmas, and of course I unknowingly messed that up. Whoops!

I have to say the gift exchange was pretty fun though. We had a $10 limit and I got a super cool remote control car. It lights up and pops wheelies and everything. We had fun playing with it at group and then took it home and chased Jessie around with it. Of course she was afraid of it – we are such good doggie parents. 😉

Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies overhead view
Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies in a bowl

There was some delicious food and they made my favorite – Funfetti Cake! I took some home with me and had another big fat slice last night. Funfetti has made a number of appearances at my birthdays over the years. I love it!

I’m also loving these cookies. I don’t make as many cookies as I do cakes, but every time I do I want to make them more often. I love grabbing one and devouring it. They travel well, they’re quick and easy to grab. And honestly, they feel less guilty.

But we won’t go there.

I made what felt like a bajillion versions of these shortbread cookies. I tried regular granulated vs powdered sugar, regular cocoa vs dark cocoa, and I tried messing around with the amount of butter.

Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies on a plate
Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies stacked on wax paper

I definitely preferred the powdered sugar. It gave me a sweeter, slightly softer cookie even though it was the same amount of sugar.

How to Make Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies

You could go either way on the cocoa. I didn’t change the type of cocoa because they’d bake differently – they don’t. It was more of a flavor thing associated with the difference in sugar. The bitterness of the dark cocoa came through a lot more with granulated sugar, but it wasn’t as harsh with powdered sugar. Sweeter. Yummier. You can use either kind of cocoa – just go with powdered sugar.

As for butter, too much butter makes these cookies too soft and not very shortbread-y.

So the final result is sweet, soft and delicious! Not everyone is super into peppermint, so the recipe shows using either vanilla or peppermint extract. If you go with the vanilla, the only peppermint flavor will be the baking chips (so festive!) and therefore not very strong. If you want a strong peppermint flavor, add the peppermint extract.

Christmas is less than a week away (!!), so fortunately these are super easy to put together. Let’s get baking!

Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies on wax paper
Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies on a plate

More Festive Recipes

Easy Peppermint Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
Peppermint Cheesecake Brownie Trifle
Peppermint Espresso Brownie Cheesecake
Peppermint Pretzel Crunch
Peppermint Mocha Fudge

Print
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Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies on parchment paper
Recipe

Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies

  • Author: Lindsay
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 24 cookies
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American

Description

These Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies are a super festive and delicious Christmas treat! They’re perfect for your holiday cookie plate!


Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 cup butter
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract (or peppermint extract)
  • 1 3/4 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa (I use Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa)
  • 6 oz chocolate (I used chocolate candiquick)
  • Peppermint Baking Chips

Instructions

1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
2. Add vanilla and mix until smooth.
3. Add flour and cocoa and mix until combined. Dough will be very thick.
4. Place dough on parchment paper and shape into a log.
5. Roll dough up into parchment paper and refrigerate for about an hour.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a cookie sheet by lining it with parchment paper or a non stick baking mat.
7. Slice dough into about 24 cookies that are about 1/4 inch thick.
8. Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes.
9. Allow cookies to cool completely on a cooling rack.
10. Melt chocolate in a bowl.
11. Pour chocolate into a piping bag with a small round tip (or into a ziplock bag with a corner cut off) and drizzle chocolate over cookies. Sprinkle peppermint baking chips onto chocolate as you go – chocolate dries quickly.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 Cookie
  • Calories: 166
  • Sugar: 3.6 g
  • Sodium: 3.6 mg
  • Fat: 11.7 g
  • Carbohydrates: 13.8 g
  • Protein: 2.4 g
  • Cholesterol: 20.5 mg

Filed Under:

Enjoy!

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25 Comments
  1. kathy

    Has anyone made these with peppermint extract instead of vanilla? Is it to pepperminty?
    Or 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp peppermint??
    Thank you

  2. Peggy Moorhouse

    Where I live, in Canada, powdered sugar refers to the sugar that one uses to make icing. Is that the type of sugar that is called for in this recipe?

  3. Heather

    I made these for the first time on Christmas Eve. These are delicious and I plan on making them until my Andes peppermint chocolates run out! I couldn’t find the peppermint baking chips so I chopped up the Andes peppermint mints & added crushed candy canes to top the melted chocolate – YUM!

    I love your cake recipes & this cookie recipe is a home run!

    Thank you!






  4. Corrina Jimenez

    Oh my goodness… I’m in heaven! I am so going to try these. I can’t wait to see how they turn out! Love meeting fellow bloggers like yourself.

  5. Sadie

    I’m curious. The instructions are to roll the dough into a log, but the cookies pictured appear to be rectangular, not round. Did you shape the long into a rectangle before slicing?

    1. Lindsay

      It’s been a while, but I think they kind of naturally ended up with a side that straightened while sitting in the fridge, so I made them more rectangular. Feel free to make whatever shape you prefer.

  6. Linda Vanfossan

    Shortbread has always been my favorite type of cookie, but I was always afraid it was too complicated to make correctly. These looked so good (and simple), I wanted to make them for my church’s cookie exchange, so I took a leap of faith and made these last night as a “trial run”—-SUCCESS! Absolutely wonderful! I didn’t ice or decorate them yet, as I’m undecided as to using melted chocolate chips rather than candy melts or bark, but I just wanted to say “thanks”!! I’m making a second batch today! YaaaY!

  7. Linda Vanfossan

    Perfect for my church cookie exchange!! One question however: The recipe says peppermint baking chips, but the photos look like crushed peppermint candy such as candy canes, etc. How do you make baking chips look “crushed”?

  8. Julianne+@+Beyond+Frosting

    It’s not everyday you find a good chocolate shortbread! This looks great! How sweet of your small group to throw you a surprise party!!

  9. Wendy

    Happy Birthday! Though funfetti is wonderful (and very celebratory!) these chocolate shortbread are festive enough for any celebration! So pretty! Chocolate peppermint is a holiday favorite I would like to see all year. 🙂

  10. Jocelyn+(Grandbaby+cakes)

    What a wonderful surprise! Funfetti cake is the best! Also I have to say that these shortbread are absolutely perfect. I love the chocolate flavor.

  11. Karen+@+The+Food+Charlatan

    Oh my gosh, these might be the best looking shortbread cookies I’ve seen this year!! Loooove the peppermint. The look so moist. Yum! And happy 30th! Why don’t we always do white elephants at birthday parties? Sounds fun to me 🙂

  12. Meg @ The Housewife in Training Files

    I want to come to your cookie exchange party if you give cool gifts like a remote control car!

  13. Mir

    Happy birthday, Lindsay! Welcome to the 30s. It’s a pretty awesome decade!
    As a huge fan of your cakes, I can see why you bake them more. But your cookies are just as gorgeous! I can’t imagine walking by a plate of these and passing it up!

Lindsay
About Lindsay

I'm a wife and a mom to twin boys and a baby girl! And I've got a serious sweets addiction! Bring on the treats!

Scripture I’m Loving

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29