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. I’m looking at you, chocolate cookies with candy cane buttercream. Well, until you taste today’s cookie. Move over chocolate, white chocolate has 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 flavor– but 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 it– a little goes a long way.
- White Chocolate Chips: Can’t have white chocolate cookies without white chocolate chips!
- Candy Canes: We use crushed candy canes in these cookies– which 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 cookie– chill 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 exchanges– they 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 (spoon & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light 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 the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl using a hand-held 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 2 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 350°F (177°C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) 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.
- 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.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: peppermint white chocolate cookies, peppermint cookies
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 bottle…how 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!
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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!
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Hi! I’m 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.