During the holidays, the internet is awash with complicated cookie recipes. If you read from one blog to the next it’s almost, almost as if each blogger is trying to outdo the next with the extravagance of their brand new favorite holiday cookie.
I am not one of those bloggers.
Several years ago I saw a cookie recipe on Martha Stewart that required a few simple ingredients: prepared sugar cookie dough, peppermint extract, red food dye, white chocolate and crushed peppermint. The idea was to flavor the sugar cookie dough with the peppermint, dye half the dough red and braid them into candy canes. Once baked and cooled, you dipped them into the white chocolate and crushed peppermints.
It was way too complicated for me.
I consider myself to be an excellent baker but making things look pretty? Not always my bag. I can make desserts that naturally look appealing, like rustic apple tarts and fudgey brownies that relentlessly call your name until you eat a second. I can’t, however, decorate a birthday cake to rival cake boss or ice a sugar cookie that resembles anything other than a second graders failed art project.
The moral of this story is that if I am going to make a holiday cookie, it’s going to be an easy recipe and this one fits the bill. It’s simple: you start with prepared sugar cookie dough and combine it with crushed chocolate peppermints. When the cookies are cooled, dip them in white chocolate and sprinkle them with your choice of crushed peppermint, colored sugar or sprinkles.
Peppermint Truffle Cookies:
Serves 16
What You Need:
1 roll 16.5 ounce Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookies
1 5-ounce box chocolate mint wafer candies (such as Andes)
1 12-ounce bag white chocolate chips
1 tablespoon shortening
Colored sugar or sprinkles
How-To:
Heat oven to 350°F. In a small bowl, crush chocolate wafer candies into chunks. In a larger bowl, break up cookie dough. Stir or knead in chocolate wafer candies into cookie dough until it’s well blended.
Drop dough by tablespoon on ungreased cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until edges turn golden brown. Cool 5 minutes and then remove from cookie sheets to wire cooling racks. Cool completely, about 20 minutes.
Place a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water on the stove. Melt shortening and white chocolate chips in the bowl over low heat until chocolate has melted. Dip half of each cookie into the white chocolate mixture. Dust with colored sugar or sprinkles.
Let stand until glaze is set. Store in an airtight container for three days or freeze indefinitely.
I was compensated by General Mills to develop this recipe. All opinions here are my own.
Print This Recipe
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
thanks for this recipe! i’m not one of those bloggers either…
These cookies look like great holiday treats.
these look great! Too many ingredients and steps most often means it’s a recipe I won’t try!
I don’t mind the complicated recipes but like to have simple ones that are good as well. These look delicious.
These look so festive!
I am in total agreement,find a recipe you like and tweak it for different occasions.Well done!
Love this Maris. Simple really is best!!!! Take care!!!
Mmm…peppermint and chocolate are so good together. These cookies sound really good and easy to make.
These sound delicious and so festive!
I am totally with you on this! These look fantastic! Often times simple is soooo much better
See, this is a real recipe. I love it.
Oh they are super easy and right up my alley. I am with your Maris, I can bake and I can cook but decorate I can NOT! I always try to be “martha” in my crafting and decorating but it really never ever turns out right! So i gave up a long time ago! This cookie looks amazing!
yahhhhhhhhhhhh….I don’t do complicated recipes either- who has the time?? These are gorgeous- so festive!
Simple. Festive. Delicious. Way to go Maris!
Super easy!! What a great recipe when you don’t feel like making cookies all day long. Thank you!!!
xoxo
Heather
Easy, and yet they look so darn pretty. Who said it wasn’t your bag???
I’m all about easy cookie recipes, and these sound fantastic, Maris! Very festive, I love them. Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving, btw. xx
i must admit – i enjoy a simple cookie recipe over a complicated one! these look great
Shh don’t tell some people but I also like using products that can simplify the process. While typically I bake from scratch, I love Pillsbury cookie dough. And prepared pie dough. Take away my card if you must, but the ease combined with great results is perfect sometimes. These are cute and sound delish.
Hey, good for you! These look very nice – I don’t bake cookies on the boat but in a couple of weeks after we move into the house for the rest of the winter, I will be getting into it… will try these for sure.
thanks!
I am a charter member of the “can’t decorate worth a hill of beans club”!! But I always make sugar cookies from scratch during the holidays … if I didn’t, I think my boys (all three.. hubs and sons) would stage a major revolt. I admit it, I spoiled them.. they know the difference!! Fortunately, the sugar cookie recipe is dead simple to make and pretty much infallible… in all the years I’ve made it (including a few times when the mercury hit over 80 degrees in DECEMBER!!) it hasn’t failed me once! But, I am all for using pre made products and these cookies sound perfect!
These look perfectly festive! I love classic recipes too. I find that over complicated cakes and cookies are tiring when we need to just rest during Christmas.
I’m a sucker for anything mint flavored!
This recipe is right up my alley! Love how easy it is!
I love this! A perfect, simple treat and it looks holiday-ready in all its frosted, sprinkled glory
I’ve really been craving some peppermint this week too!
Easy cookies in the middle of the holiday season sound perfect! These look great.
There is nothing like the smell of cookies baking in the oven…especially at holiday time. Love how this is uncomplicated and delicious:)
Last year I took on the task of making an assortment of cookies for all the neighbors–cookies boxes of five different kinds, all from scratch. Guess what I’m NOT doing this year, heh.
These look lovely and simple! Well done
I am all for simple recipes. Since I do so much baking at the holidays, anything complicated just makes it too much. These look delicious.
at this time of year, simple is GOOD!
The sound of that Martha recipe makes me laugh. At that point, you’re better off just starting with scratch ingredients. I hear you on the outdoing of each other, I think it can definitely seem that way. From my point of view it is often that it feels like EVERYTHING has been done so how do you possibly create something that seems interesting. It’s hard because I LOVE posting about holiday baking, but many of us are making the same classic recipes.
Hola Maris!!! I love simple,simple, simple on the holiday, Marhta kills me, lol
take care and good luck on your new venture!!
Fun easy cookies with your own special twist-love it! And, I too, leave much in the way of the imagination in the cake decorating department. Sigh…
this looks so yummy! Ive bookmarked it ready to get the ingredients next time I brave the supermarket, thanks! Belle
Maris, these really look delicious and I am DYING to break out package of pre-made cookie dough!! It will just have to wait a couple of months though.
Maris, these look divine! And I love how easy they are to make!
Loving the festive look on those cookies. Best of all, these are so easy to make which means less holiday stress!
This is my kind of decorating!!!!
I do not bake, but I was invited to a cookie exchange. This recipe was the easiest and turned out the best cookies ever! I was asked for more