One of the best parts of the Christmas season for a baker is the excuse to make cookies for just about any reason. Once the magazines, blogs, and cookies shows turn from Thanksgiving to Christmas, I get great ideas for all sorts of new cookie creations. There’s just one problem. My family really loves and looks forward to the frosted molasses cookies that I make every year. If I’m honest, they are part of what makes the season for me too. Where those cookies are a bit time consuming to make, I rarely make more than two other relatively simple ones–Icebox Shortbreads or Egg Nog Cookies–to go in my family’s cookie tins.
Still, the urge hits me every year to try something new. Thanks to Pinterest, I’ve pinned more cookie recipes on my “Christmas Cookies for Santa” board than I would ever possibly have time to make. This year, I had to try something that I was wanting to create. I imagined a dense, brownie-like cookie, that was studded with chopped peppermint bark. I found a recipe for Chocolate Brownie Cookies on Food & Wine, made a couple minor tweaks, and started baking. Now, I present you with Peppermint-Bark Chocolate-Truffle Cookies. They capture one of my favorite flavor combinations of the season. Cheers!
Peppermint-Bark Chocolate-Truffle Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 pound semi-sweet chocolate chopped
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 4 large eggs
- 1½ cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 12 ounces peppermint bark chopped
Instructions
- Melt the butter and chopped chocolate in a double boiler over simmering water, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth and fluid. Remove chocolate from double boiler and allow it to cool slightly.
- In a large bowl beat the eggs and sugar with a hand-held electic mixer on medium speed. Continue beating until the eggs and sugar are pale yellow and thick, about 5 minutes. (It will look a bit like vanilla pudding.)
- Mix in vanilla and salt.
- Using a silicone spatula, gently fold in the chocolate mixture.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder. Then gently fold it into the chocolate and egg mixture.
- Stir in the chopped peppermint bark.
- Spoon the batter into an 11 x 13 baking dish. Cover and place in the freezer for about an hour or until the batter is firm.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Scoop 2-tablespoon-size balls of dough on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Bake cookies 10-12 minutes until the edges are dry and the tops are cracked.
- Allow cookies to cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets. Then transfer the cookies to cooling racks until completely cooled.
Recipe Notes
Very slightly adapted from "Chocolate Brownie Cookies"by Belinda Leong.
