Soft and chewy white chocolate peppermint cookies are as festive as they are delicious. Loaded with white chocolate chips and crushed candy canes, these holiday cookies are always a crowd pleaser!
There is no flavor duo quite like chocolate and peppermint. Well, until you taste today’s cookie. Move over chocolate, white chocolate hasย the throne today.
White chocolate peppermint cookies are super festive with crushed candy canes, plenty of vanilla and white chocolate, and a fresh dose of Christmas’ favorite flavor: peppermint! Every December, I go through more bottles of McCormick Pure Peppermint Extract than I care to admit and have mild (ok major) freak outs when my stash is too low. (Use up any leftover peppermint extract in peppermint mocha cookies, peppermint bark, and white chocolate peppermint cupcakes).
Let’s get started!
Peppermint White Chocolate Cookies Video
Ingredients in Peppermint White Chocolate Cookies
These peppermint white chocolate cookies are a chocolate chip/sugar cookie hybrid. They have that light and sweet flavor of a sugar cookie with a buttery brown sugar chew of a chocolate chip cookie. Two cookie worlds colliding in one delicious circle. Here’s what you need to make these peppermint cookies:
- Flour: 2 cups of all-purpose flour is the base of these cookies.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch adds chewiness. I use it in many of my cookie recipes, like my best chocolate chip cookies, for ultra chewy cookies!
- Baking Soda: Baking soda helps the cookies rise.
- Salt: Salt adds flavor.
- Butter: Butter is essential for a buttery, flavorful cookie. Make sure you are using room temperature butter.
- Sugar: We use both brown sugar and granulated sugar in these cookies. I love the combination.
- Egg: One egg binds everything together.
- Vanilla & Peppermint Extracts: Both extracts add flavorโbut the cookie dough gets most of its flavor from McCormick Pure Peppermint Extract. Peppermint extract is quite potent, so we’ll only use 3/4 teaspoon of itโa little goes a long way.
- White Chocolate Chips: Can’t have white chocolate cookies without white chocolate chips!
- Candy Canes: Just like when making peppermint snowball cookies, we use crushed candy canes in these cookies. They lose their crunch and actually impart an intensely chewy “chunk” inside of the baked cookies. The cookies have this entirely unique texture, which makes it nearly impossible to eat just one.
Baker’s Tip: I find the best way to crush candy canes is to use (1) a zipped top bag and (2) a rolling pin. Roll over the candy canes, crushing them up real good, and toss them into the soft cookie dough with the white chocolate chips. You’ll feel like a weirdo, but it works.
These cookies were screaming for white chocolate on top and I wasn’t about to fight them on it. A drizzle of white chocolate puts the finishing crown on top of these peppermint beauties. And confession: even though we’re focusing on white chocolate today, these cookies taste miraculous with dark chocolate drizzled on top too.
Why You’ll Love These Peppermint Cookies
So much to love about these festive cookies! They’re:
- Extra soft and buttery
- Chewy like my chocolate chip cookies and have tons of texture in every bite
- Perfectly peppermint flavored
- A great make-ahead cookieโchill the dough for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days. No time to chill? Try my shortbread cookies instead, drizzling them with white chocolate and adding crushed candy canes on top. Yum!
- A delicious and unique option for cookie exchangesโthey always disappear instantly whenever I serve them!
- Incredibly festive
- A little crunchy (but not too crunchy) from the candy canes
- Drizzled with white chocolate for a little something extra
More Festive Christmas Cookies
- Peppermint Bark Cookies
- Santa’s Whiskers Cookies
- Mini M&M Cookies or M&M Cookie Bars
- Gingerbread Cookies
- Christmas Cookie Sparkles
- Snowmen Sugar Cookies (same dough as my favorite Sugar Cookies!)
- Candy Cane Kiss Cookies
And here are 75+ Christmas cookies with all my best success guides & tips.
Print
Peppermint White Chocolate Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
- Yield: 24 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Soft and chewy peppermint cookies with white chocolate and candy canes are festive, delicious, and easy!
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1ย teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2ย cup (100g) packed lightย brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 3/4 cup (135g) white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup crushed candy cane pieces (5 candy canes)
- 4 ounces (113g) white chocolate, coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Whisk theย flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat the butter for 1 minute on medium speed until completely smooth and creamy. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix on medium speed until fluffy and light in color. Mix in egg, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- On low speed, slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until combined. The cookie dough will be quite thick. Add the white chocolate chips and crushed candy cane, then mix for about 5 seconds until combined. Cover dough tightly with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and chill for at least 2ย hours and up to 3 days.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes, then preheat oven to 350ยฐF (177ยฐC).ย Line 2ย large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommendedย for cookies.)ย Set aside.
- Once chilled, the dough will be slightly crumbly, but will come together if you work the dough with your hands as you roll into individual balls. Roll balls of dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each, into balls. (I like using a medium cookie scoop for this.)
- Bake for 12 minutes, until lightly golden brown around the edges. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.
- If using, melt the chopped white chocolate in the microwave in 20 second increments, stirring after each until completely melted. Drizzle over cooled cookies.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. 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 Toolsย (affiliate links):ย Glass Mixing Bowlย |ย Whiskย | Electric Mixer (Handheldย orย Stand) |ย Baking Sheetsย |ย Silicone Baking Matsย orย Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
These cookies are AMAZING! The texture that the peppermint candy becomes after it bakes is incredible! People still talk about these cookies when school is letting out for summer, and I made them for Christmas break. They’re that good.
NOTE – Why am I commenting on this recipe in June, where this isn’t exactly seasonal? I’ll tell you why! When it’s around the holidays, make sure you buy some “flavored” candycanes. You know the ones – strawberry, cherry, etc. instead of peppermint. You can use this exact same recipe but sub for different flavor candycanes, and you can sub the white chocolate for a different chip if appropriate. I’ve made blue raspberry and white chocolate cookies with this same recipe, and they were delicious and looked stunning. I will be trying it soon with green apple candy cane and salted caramel chips.
Tasty but came out flat and didnโt look at all like the video. I followed the recipe and chilled the dough for 3 hours +. Not sure where I went wrong.
I donโt know what I did wrong but these turned out so awful. They were a soppy mess. I chilled the dough all day, I used room temp butter, all the usual things. Iโve never had this issue with a cookie recipe before.
These cookies have been a hit every time Iโve made them – people canโt get enough, theyโre so delicious! Wondering if they can be made into bar form for a different shape in this years Christmas cookie box – if so, what would I need to change?
Hi Bree, an 11ร7 inch pan would be the perfect size to use this cookie dough to bake bars. Weโre unsure of the exact bake time, but keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness. We’d love to know how they turn out!
These turned out perfect! I had been using a recipe I made up a few years ago and it just wasn’t turning out anymore so I decided to look for a real recipe. Lol This one was exactly what I was looking for! Instead of the crunchy candy canes, I used the Andes white chocolate peppermint pieces and white chocolate chips and they turned out so delicious and look so Christmassy too with the little red and white flecks! Highly recommend!!!
A bit of a miss for me…by no means a bad cookie, but I just felt it was lacking the wow factor for me. I didn’t feel the chewy and rich dough worked well with the more delicate peppermint and white chocolate flavors – I could barely taste them in the final cookie. Also, aesthetics-wise, they are quite a yellow cookie and don’t have that christmas-y factor that a whiter cookie might have (like the peppermint bark cookies, which look great!)
Again, not bad overall but not going to be a staple in my Christmas cookie rotation. I’d recommend looking for another recipe if you are looking for one with bit more “oomph” and Christmas spirit!
Absolute best cookies I’ve ever had. I’m a beginner and this recipe was so easy to follow. Already made three batches, and had someone request that I make them for friendsgiving!
This is my favorite Christmas cookie ever. Iโve been making for 6 years.
Hi Sally, thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes! I’ve made many of them including this one and they are all delicious. I get so many compliments when I bring them to share. Question though-I am not having any luck with cookie scoops. I’ve bought a couple of different ones but after one or two cookies, the blade thingy gets stuck. So I can’t use it. Any suggestions?
Hi Ellen, we’ve always had good luck with the OXO cookie scoops (not sponsored, just genuine fans!). They’re linked on our Baking Tools page, if you’re interested. Be sure your cookie dough isn’t too cold when scooping, as that can sometimes cause them to break.
Baked this for the first time and my sampler/hubby enjoyed it. Then I brought this to workโฆone guy gave me the thumbs up and said โyou should sell theseโ. Thank you Sally! Next time, I would crush the candy cane as shown to avoid the cookie from spreading too much.
Iโve been making these for about 5 years now and everyone loves them and always asks if they can have my recipe. I donโt gatekeep, they all get the link or I make extra for the friend that doesnโt bake, but her kids love these cookies.
Thank you for making and sharing our recipes with others, Rehana!
Hi, could these be made into bars?
If so, what changes would you recommend?
Also, have you tried them with Trader Joe’s peppermint chips?
Thanks!
Hi Jmango, this dough should work well as 9-inch cookie bars. We’re unsure of the exact bake time, but keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness. We haven’t tried those chips, but sounds like they would be delicious here!
I tried them with the Trader Joeโs peppermint chips since it was all I had on hand. Since they were already minty, I skipped adding the peppermint extract and crushed candy canes, and used red and green sprinkles instead for color. They turned out absolutely delicious and Iโm planning on making them again when I have the correct ingredients!
Hi Sally, curious on your tip to help these cookies from spreading/getting flat. Is it due to the extra sugar from the crushed candy canes? Anything I can do to help that?
Hi Meghan! The longer chill time (2 hours) definitely helps prevent excessive spread. Make sure your butter is room temperature (and not too warm) and follow these tips to prevent cookies from spreading for best success. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
Can this recipe be doubled?
Hi Harriet, yes, you can double this recipe. Enjoy!
Iโve been baking these cookies for coming up 7 years!!!! Love thrm
The cookies were delicious but didnโt look as pretty as yours. Did you press the chocolate chips and candy canes on top or mix them in?
Hi Olivia, we’re so glad you enjoyed these cookies! We do include the chocolate chips and candy canes directly in the dough (step 3), but we do also press a few on top after baking. This is purely for looks!
I bake for the homeless, and as a Christmas fundraiser I made a 10 x batch. Most people wouldn’t attempt a new recipe, but I am confident all Sally’s recipes work so I went for it. I made over 300 cookies, baked a few and put the rest in the freezer to bake closer to Christmas. Huge hit with the testers, and I will be adding this recipe to my repertoire.
Crushing the candy canes was a bit of a pain and to buy it was expensive to buy crushed, after many options I ended up pulsing them in a food processor stopping prior to them becoming powder. I could only find peppermint and mint extract so that’s what I used.
Thanks for a yummy recipe.
I love this recipe so much (my coworkers are forced to love it too now). I have a secret stash of candy canes always on hand so I can make these anytime of the year.
Recently, I have turned them into espresso peppermint white chocolate cookies by using 4 teaspoons of espresso powder similar to the Espresso White Chocolate Chunk Cookies from your Cookie Addiction cookbook and it turned out great.
Looking forward to making this for a cookie exchange! Any recommendations on how to drizzle the melted chocolate? In the video I see you using a squeeze bottleโฆhow did you transition the melted chocolate? Thank you!
Hi Sarah, I just pour the melted white chocolate into a squeeze bottle. It’s thin enough to pour. You can use a spoon to help slide it into the bottle, too.
Thank you!
This is a very fun and festive cookie recipe! I made them for a cookie swap I am attending tonight. They came out great! I can’t wait to share them. Thank you for the recipe!
Hi! Iโm wondering if you think these will save well if stored in an airtight container in a cool location? I usually get my Christmas baking done early and store in tin cans until I make up trays- wondering if I could do the same for this cookie or if these should be super fresh. Thanks!
Hi Lindsay, you can bake and store them at a cool temperature for up to a week. For longer than that, we’d recommend following the freezing instructions in the recipe Notes. Enjoy!
Would these cookies benefit from brown butter (at the correct texture/temperature) or would it mess up the peppermint flavor?
Hi M, you could give it a try, but it will likely be masked by the chocolate flavor.