The holiday baking has officially begun in our home. We’ve spent the last week testing cookies, fudge, brownies, and candy recipes to give as holiday gifts this year. Over the years I’ve accumulated recipes dating back to my childhood that we make every holiday season. Most are written on notebook pages nestled in a folder – fancy, I know. Someday I’d like to make a photo book out of them to give the kids when they’re older. For now I’m working on remaking them to see what we like and what we can improve. During our week of baking we narrowed our list to include some of our favorite recipes. We typically have a day long baking session the day after the kids start Christmas break. We then package the treats the next day to prepare for delivery. We spend the whole day visiting family and friends, dropping off our treats. This year we decided to add our double chocolate peppermint cookies to the list. We slightly changed the recipe to add a peppermint ganache and candy cane pieces on top.
Being a lifelong chocolate lover means I’ve always enjoyed semi-sweet chocolate ganache topping. Whether it’s on brownies, cake, or cheesecake, the rich chocolate flavor is simply delicious. How I’ve never tried adding ganache to cookies is beyond me. Using our double chocolate peppermint cookie recipe I omitted the peppermint extract and made a ganache topping with crushed peppermint pieces.
Chocolate Ganache Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups chocolate chunks
- 1/2 cup candy cane pieces
- Ganache:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy.
- In a large bowl stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture until well combined.
- Stir in chocolate chunks.
- Use cookie scoop to drop cookies onto ungreased baking sheet.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes.
- Cool slightly then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
- For the Ganache:
- Heat heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Pour hot cream over chocolate chips in a medium bowl. Allow to sit for 1-2 minutes while cream melts the chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
- Spread ganache over cookies and top with crushed candy cane pieces. Allow to cool for 30 minutes.
More holiday ideas you may like:
Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Dip
