It's finally the holiday season! I will be honest, I have been watching non-stop Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel since before Thanksgiving. I'm glad it's finally time to appropriately be festive!

This will be Caleb's first Christmas and although he will have no idea what's going on, I'm still really excited to share the magic of the holidays with him. For the past couple years I've made lots of Christmas treats and I hope to continue the tradition this year.

I will be sharing some great cookie recipes I hope you will be able to share with your families. This one reminds me of my Dad because he is the ultimate hot chocolate lover! He enjoys hot cocoa on a daily basis. Appropriately, he was in town visiting Caleb when I was testing this recipe and was able to be one of my taste testers.

One thing i want to make clear, this isn't a rich chocolate cookie. If you think about your traditional powder mix hot cocoa, it has a subtle milky chocolate flavor. That is exactly what you will get with this cookie. I toyed around with adding some cocoa powder to up the chocolate, but I think it would take away from the hot chocolate flavor and leave you with just another chocolate cookie. I also added just a touch of peppermint extract since the Candy Cane Kiss adds a lot of minty favor. If you are going to leave out the Kiss or really enjoy peppermint flavor, up the 1/8 teaspoon to 1/4.

Print this Recipe

Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cookies

Chewy peppermint hot chocolate cookie with subtle milk chocolate flavor

Makes: 18 cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (187.5 grams all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup (50 grams) light brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup instant hot chocolate mix (powder)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
18 Candy Cane Hershey's Kisses
White chocolate, for drizzle

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt
In a large bowl attached to a stand mixer, add the butter, sugars and hot chocolate mix
Mix on low speed until it starts to combine then beat on medium high speed until creamed and lighter in color (about 4 minutes)
Scrape the sides of the bowl then add the egg, vanilla extract and peppermint extract. Mix on medium low speed for about 30 seconds until it combines
Gradually add the flour mixture with the mixer on low speed. The batter will be thick and sticky so scrape the bowl as necessary
Mix until the flour is incorporated, being sure not to over mix
Scoop the cookie dough into 1.5 tablespoon balls and place onto a cookie sheet
Bake for 9 - 10 minutes. Allow the cookies to sit on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes
Lightly push the kisses into the center of the cookies
When the cookies are cool, drizzle the melted white chocolate
Tip: For thicker cookies, refrigerate the dough for atleast an hour then scoop and bake