Let’s dress up a favorite chocolate cookie dough and make these peppermint frosted chocolate cookies. You’ll love these Christmas cookies because they’re fudge-like and rich with extra soft centers and chewy edges. The peppermint frosting is velvet smooth and a pleasant crunch from crushed candy canes adds a festive finishing touch!
One reader, Veronica, commented: “Excellent cookies. The chocolate cookies are delicious on their own, but the buttercream frosting really puts it over the top. Perfect for the holiday! โ โ โ โ โ “
Another reader, Ginny, commented: “I don’t make cookies often so if I do, they have to be AMAZING. That’s exactly the word I would use for these. I’ve made a note for them to come out every holiday seasonโgorgeous to look at and absolutely delicious exactly as the recipe directs. โ โ โ โ โ “
This recipe is part of my annual Christmas cookie countdown called Sallyโs Cookie Palooza!
Tell Me About These Peppermint Frosted Chocolate Cookies
- Flavor: If you love the combination of mint and chocolate, don’t miss out on this cookie recipe. We use peppermint extract in both the cookie dough and frosting, an ingredient I always prefer over regular mint extract (which can sometimes taste like toothpaste). A careful ratio of unsweetened cocoa powder, flour, and butter gives us fudgy cookies that border the line of homemade brownies. These are pretty much brownie cookies without the need for melted chocolate in the dough.
- Texture: Soft-baked, thick, and chewy. All good stuff!
- Ease & Time: This is a basic chocolate cookie dough without any specialty ingredients. Most of the ingredients are repeated in the frosting, too. Cocoa powder makes this cookie dough extra sticky, so chilling the cookie dough is imperative. Set aside 3 hours to chill or you can prepare the dough the night before to get a jumpstart on cookie baking the next day.
Your Go-To Chocolate Cookie Recipe
If you’ve made a few of my chocolate cookie recipes before, including double chocolate chip cookies, this dough will look familiar. The reason I hardly stray from it is because this cookie recipe works and I don’t find testing alternate versions necessary. The soft cookies are in-your-face chocolate, so it’s my gold standard chocolate dough. We use it for:
Note: The chocolate crinkle cookies and peppermint mocha cookies can over-spread as a result of the sugar coating and peppermint extract (respectively), so I leave out the milk in those versions.
If you’re looking for cookie cutter style chocolate cookies, here are my chocolate sugar cookies (based off my reader-favorite sugar cookies!). Or if you are looking for peppermint flavor without the chocolate, these peppermint meltaway cookies are for you.
Success Tips for Peppermint Frosted Chocolate Cookies
- Chilling the dough: Make the cookie dough using the printable recipe below. Cocoa powder is a very light, fine powder so it doesn’t bulk up cookie dough like all-purpose flour. (It’s also very drying.) As a result, this chocolate cookie dough is sticky. It’s sticky & soft before chilling it in the refrigerator and even though it’s still a bit sticky after chilling, it’s much easier to handle. Chilling dough also guarantees thicker cookies. See my 10 tips for how to prevent cookies from spreading.
- Portioning the dough: Each dough ball should be a heaping Tablespoon, so use a cookie scoop or Tablespoon measure to scoop the dough. Give the cookies a light roll in your hands and have a kitchen towel or paper towel nearby. I usually wipe my hands clean after every few cookie dough balls because clean hands make rolling easier.
- Baking tip: Bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes. If the cookies arenโt really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2-3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven for a couple more minutes.
As the cookies cool, make your frosting.
Peppermint Frosting
The creamy frosting on top is essentially vanilla buttercream with the addition of peppermint extract. It’s very similar to the frosting on these peppermint mocha cupcakes, too. I’ve never paired this chocolate cookie dough with buttercream before and even though it sounds like an obvious match, I wasn’t expecting it to be *this* good. The cookies are pretty rich, so they don’t need a heavy pile of frosting.
The buttercream recipe makes just enough for a simple swipe of frosting on each cookie. Feel free to pipe it on top, but I just use a knife or small icing spatula.
To garnish the cookies, you can use:
- Crushed Candy Canes
- Chopped Andes Mints
- Sprinkles
- Mini Chocolate Chips
Or you could even sandwich the frosting between two cookies, then roll the outside edges in your garnish of choice, similar to rolling cookie ice cream sandwiches in chocolate chips or sprinkles.
Sally’s Cookie Palooza
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
- Peppermint Mocha Cookies
- Butter Cookies
- Soft Molasses Cookies
- Cherry Almond Shortbread Cookies
- Homemade Brownies
and here are my top 10 cookie baking tools if you’re looking for recommendations!
Peppermint Frosted Chocolate Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours (includes cooling)
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These peppermint frosted chocolate cookies combine a rich and fudgy chocolate cookie with smooth and creamy peppermint frosting. The dough requires 3 hours of chilling in the refrigerator, so make sure you set aside enough time.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g)ย unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cupย (100g)ย granulated sugar
- 1/2 cupย (100g) packed light or darkย brown sugar
- 1ย largeย egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoonย pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 cupย (125g)ย all-purpose flourย (spooned & leveled)
- 2/3 cupย (55g) natural unsweetenedย cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoonย baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoonย salt
- 1 Tablespoonย (15ml)ย milkย (any kind, dairy or non)
- 1 cup (180g) mini or regular semi-sweet chocolate chips
Peppermint Buttercream & Topping
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g)ย unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 and 1/4 cups (270g) confectioners’ sugar
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk, at room temperature (dairy or nondairy)
- 1 teaspoonย pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract, or more to taste
- salt, to taste
- 1/3 cup (50g) crushed candy canes (about 3–4 large candy canes)
Instructions
- Make the cookies: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium high speed until fluffy and light in color, about 3 minutes. (Hereโs a helpful tutorial if you need guidance onย how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the egg, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract, and then beat on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour into the wet ingredients. Beat on low until combined. The cookie dough will be quite thick. Switch to high speed and beat in the milk, then the chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be sticky and tacky. Cover dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this sticky cookie dough.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. This makes the chilled cookie dough easier to scoop and roll.
- Preheat oven to 350ยฐF (177ยฐC). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommendedย for cookies.)ย Set aside.
- Scoop and roll dough, about 1 Tablespoon of dough each, into balls. Arrange 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheets. The cookie dough is certainly sticky, so wipe your hands clean after every few balls of dough you shape.
- Bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes or until the edges appear set and the centers still look soft. Tip: If they arenโt really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2-3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven to continue baking.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.ย
- Make the buttercream: With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add confectionersโ sugar, heavy cream/milk, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to medium-high speed and beat for 2 full minutes. Taste. Beat in a pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet. I usually add a little less than 1/8 teaspoon. And, if desired, beat in another drop of peppermint extract.
- Frost the cookies:ย Top each cookie with frosting. Garnish frosting with crushed candy canes. Frosting doesn’t dry completely, but will set after several hours. Carefully stacking frosted cookies is fine after that.
- Cover and store cookies at room temperature for up to 1 day or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days (step 2). Baked cookies with or without frosting freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator, and then bring to room temperature before enjoying. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cooling Rack | Small Icing Spatula
- Larger Batch: The recipe is easy to double in 1 mixing bowl without overwhelming your mixer. Simply double all of the cookie dough and frosting ingredients. Dough chill time remains the same.
- Natural Cocoa Powder: Do you know the difference between dutch-process vs natural cocoa powder? Use natural in this dough.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Great cookies! We love this combo!
My most requested Christmas cookie. Seems like I have to double the amount of dough I make every year! Itโs delicious and festive.
Hi! Would I be able to add chopped mint Oreos to these as well as the chocolate chips, or would that affect their structural integrity too much?
Hi Fatima, you certainly can add chopped mint Oreos. I would reduce the chocolate chips by half. You could probably use around 3/4 cup to 1 cup of chopped Oreos.
Thank you Sally for sharing this recipe! The Chocolate Cookie was delicious on its own. But adding the peppermint Frosting made it one amazing cookie! The only thing I did different was I left out the Chocolate Chips ( texture thing for me). And I doubled yhe Vanilla Extract in the cookie, rather than add the Peppermint Extract, to keep the cookie with a true Chocolate flavor. My family loved them!! Merry Christmas to you, your family and your team!
Oh, how I love thee, Sally! Your recipes are always a hit and the instructions never fail me. Thanks for another wonderful recipe! (I put a drop of red food coloring in my frosting because I thought the pink frosting was festive!)
I donโt have peppermint extract. What should I do about the extra extract? I was going to use peppermint chocolate chips since I have those to get the peppermint flavor.
Hi Whitney, you can skip it without any other changes.
I am freezing the dough balls to bake off as needed. Can I freeze the frosting in small batches then thaw to use as needed?
Hi Lois, You can cover the frosting tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer. After freezing, thaw in the refrigerator then beat the frosting on medium speed for a few seconds so itโs creamy again. After thawing or refrigerating, beating in a splash of heavy cream or milk will help thin the frosting out again, if needed.