A few weeks ago, I freaked out over these peppermint bark baking bits from Trader Joe’s (new vlog coming soon!!) and immediately invented a cookie recipe to shove them in. I’ve now made these cookies 18 (okay, 3) times in the past couple weeks and I can’t. get. enough. They taste like brownie batter with the slightest hint of peppermint and are dangerously addictive.
I made the mistake of bringing the entire first batch of cookies into work, leaving only one cookie for Mike to try, which officially makes me the meanest - I KNOW. So, the other night, we’re finishing up dinner and Mike has dropped roughly 1,000 hints about how much he would just looooove a chewy chocolate cookie and it’s toooo bad all the cookies ended up in someone ELSE’S belly, and I decide to redeem myself by whipping up another batch. At this point it’s 9PM and my bedtime is rapidly approaching, so I’m trying to make these cookies AFAP (as fast as possible. invented for the sake of this story), speeding around the kitchen like a Tazmanian devil. While the butter and sugar are spinning around inside the mixing bowl getting fluffy, I fling open the cabinet to grab the flour like a whirling dervish - thereby knocking the metal lid of my flour canister INTO THE MIXER WHICH IS ON. HIGH.
COOKIE DOUGH EXPLOSION. MELANIE CRYING. THE SOUND OF METAL SCRAPING METAL (a sound one hopes to never hear whilst BAKING). HELP. HELP. HELP.
If you have ever wondered what a cookie crime scene might look like, just imagine this:
Dough splattered onto every surface of your kitchen. Cocoa powder (which is im.poss.i.ble. to clean) sprayed across the counters and floor. Flour in your hair, eyes, and life.
After screaming for five seconds I had the clarity of mind to TURN OFF the mixer before it died a sad and messy death. Somehow I managed to salvage the few scoops of dough left at the bottom of the bowl to bake up a couple cookies, and all was well in the MJM household.
The moral of the story? Make these delicious cookies, but don’t try to do it AFAP.
Chewy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
yield: about 4 dozen cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks
- 2 cups flour
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups peppermint bark baking bits (if you can’t find the bits, you could use a combo of chocolate chips and candy cane pieces)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugars on medium-high until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add vanilla, then scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides to incorporate ingredients as needed.
- In a separate bowl, add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir on low speed until combined. Add the baking bits; stir until incorporated.
- Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto a baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes - do not over bake, or the cookies will be crispy instead of chewy! Allow to cool on a wire rack.
As bakers, we’ve all been there with the flour spilling because we were in such a hurry. My best? The flour spilling into the opened kitchen junk drawer- the one with pens, notepads, kitchen magnets, screwdrivers, extra keys. Everything had to be taken out and washed off. And yes, it was getting near bedtime.
I have to go to a cookie swap this weekend and have been racking my brain since the invite came out about what cookie to make. You have answered my prayers with this recipe!!! SO excited to make it and be the hero of the cookie swap (wait, it’s not a competition….or IS it!?!?)
Anyway, thanks for the recipe!
YES!! Be the hero!! (No pressure…;)
Oh my gosh, I feel like stuff like this happens to me all the time. I tend to cook when I’m hungry, so I get all shaky and impatient and start throwing and dropping things. I once made homemade coconut butter and tried to scrape down the sides of my blender WITH A KNIFE WHILE IT WAS RUNNING. The inevitable happened. I understand your fears.
WHAAAAAAAT. Do you still have all of your fingers?????
I totally know the mixer explosion disaster…has happened to me way too many times!
But the cookies look delicious!!
why didn’t u have a picture of the mess!! This looks like the kind of recipe Jordan and Austin will help me make nest week. They sound delicious. Thank You Melanie for all your great recipes ( and stories)
LOL! - - you always tell a great story.
And I got the cutest little cupcake fabric bag made by your mama for my daughter for Christmas. She’s a foodie - at 8 years old. This is how blogs like your start - ha!
MELANIE I went to Trader Joe’s and they were OUT of the baking bits. Heartbreaking. He told me to cut up their peppermint bark. We’re making them now, I’ll report back.
(obviously they were still delicious. thanks for the recipe!!)
The same thing happened to me!!! I went back again today and they are STILL GONE!!! I’m glad yours still came out delicious!!
Do you add the two extra egg yolks at the same time that you add the two whole eggs?
Yes- I did them one at a time (eggs and then yolks), beating after each addition.
Hilarious. (always.)
And these look totally amazing.
My mom has been making cookies up the waz this past week, so now that I’m home I’m eating them up the waz. So bad, but SO GOOD.