These Double Chocolate Peppermint Kiss Cookies are rich, chewy and delightfully minty. A secret, unexpected ingredient gives them an extra fudgy texture!
When I think of Christmas foods, I think of one thing. [Well, okay, maybe two things, but Advent Calendars hardly count.] I think of Christmas cookies!!! No Christmas Cookie collection would be complete without the ubiquitous peppermint addition. This year I decided I really, really wanted chocolate with that peppermint. These Double Chocolate Peppermint Kiss Cookies have a healthy dose of chocolate and just the right touch of Christmas!
Santa will probably go hunting through your kitchen to find more of these! Extra chocolate chips are nestled in rich, fudgy chocolate cookies. The peppermint kiss on top gives just the right amount of bright mint flavor to accentuate the chocolate!
I added an extra egg yolk to the batter for an extra fudgy texture and a hint of brandy for extra holiday cheer!
I will say that the brandy only works to enhance the chocolate flavor much like coffee, so these cookies are 100% kid approved. Next time I'll add a teaspoon more for a more adult treat. 😉 The brandy also adds extra moisture, which adds to these cookies fudgy texture.
These can be made with or without chilling the batter but they will be a whole lot more photogenic if you refrigerate it for 2 hours. If you do not refrigerate the dough, be sure to reduce the baking time by a minute or two.
These Double Chocolate Peppermint Kiss Cookies will be the hit of your cookie exchange, the talk of the office and the one cookie you won't want to stop making when the New Year rolls around!
Double Chocolate Peppermint Kiss Cookies
Ingredients
- 16 Hershey's Peppermint Kisses
- ½ cup unsalted butter (slightly softened)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon brandy
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup Dutch processed cocoa
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- ⅓ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk to evenly distribute cocoa powder throughout flour mixture. Set aside.
- Cream together butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat in egg, egg yolk, brandy and vanilla.
- Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk to the butter mixture; beginning and ending with flour. I used four additions. Add the chocolate chips and stir until chips are distributed throughout the batter.
- At this point you may choose to refrigerate the batter for 2 hours. It is not necessary but it will help you roll the cookies into pretty balls.
- Roll 2 tablespoons of the dough into a ball and place 2” apart on the cookie sheet.
- Bake 8-11 minutes or until the edges of the cookie are set but the middle is still glossy and a little loose.
- Let cool 10 minutes on the baking sheet and then press a kiss into the center of each cookie. Move to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
Great recipe!
I’m now gonna make them for my mum as she is feeling sick today!
Hopefully this will cheer her up.
Keep the great recipes coming!
I hope they cheered her up!
Beautiful cookies - and they look so fudgy! Perfect for Christmas! I would not leave those out for Santa - give him a simpler cookie! 🙂
Lol! Thanks, Julia!
OMG. These are the ones I took to the cookie exchange. I used the recipe from the Cooks Illustrated magazine. I like the tassies way better.
Lol! That is too funny! I like the tassies better too: it is hard to compete with 4 generations of awesome!
The pictures and thought are so lovely, bu you're only sort of right. Coffee is bitter and enhances flavor as a counter-point. The reason brandy works to highlight flavor is because many of the ingredients in this recipe are alcohol soluble, meaning they disperse. And of course, (thankfully) almost all of the booze burns off when you bake, so the alcohol flavor is the only reason children might not like these. (Kids do seem to shy away from those flavors, right?) So happily, there is no chance they will get tipsy. YAY!
Did you create this recipe or did you adapt it from an un-accredited source? (I don't mean to sound like a troll, I am genuinely curious.)
Thanks and happiest of happy holidays!!!!
Thank you for the chemistry lesson! There isn't even enough brandy in the recipe as written to taste the flavor at all. A fact I was a touch disappointed about because I initially wanted a hint of lingering flavor but I liked the result so much I had to share!
The recipe is from a hodgepodge of sources and my own experimentation. I have waaay too many recipe books on my shelf that I read for fun! I think you can see from my other posts that I give credit where credit is due whether that be from other blogs, books or cooking magazines!
Have a happy holiday season!
cookies + peppermint=Christmas ESPECIALLY when you add an extra yolk and get this kind of fudgy goodness!!!
Amen to that! I'm pretty sure I was just ogling your engagement photos again while you were typing this 😉 So happy for you!