Peppermint Frosted Chocolate Cookies
Servings: 35
Chocolate Cookies:
Peppermint Frosting:
Garnish:
Instructions
1.
Preheat
oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, and
brown sugar for 4 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the
bowl.
2.
Add
eggs and vanilla and mix for 1 minute longer.
3.
Add
cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, salt and mix just until combined. Fold in
chocolate chips.
4.
Scoop
the dough onto parchment paper lined, light-colored baking sheets, spaced at
least two-inches apart. If you want flatter cookies, lightly press down on the
cookies.
5.
Bake
for 8-10 minutes. Do NOT overbake the cookies as they will continue to bake
once they are removed from the oven. Set aside to cool.
Peppermint Frosting:
1.
In
a mixing bowl, cream together butter and cream cheese for 2-3 minutes until
light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and peppermint extract. I suggest starting
with 1/4 teaspoon and you can add more depending on preference. Mix for 1
minute longer.
2.
Spread
the frosting on cooled chocolate cookies. Sprinkle with crushed candy canes.
Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Notes
Homemade Eggnog
Ingredients
Instructions
1.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a medium bowl until
light and creamy.
2.
In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the cream, milk,
nutmeg and salt. Stir often until mixture reaches a bare simmer.
3.
Add a big spoonful of the hot milk to the egg mixture, whisking
vigorously. Repeat, adding a big spoonful at a time, to temper the eggs.
4.
Once most of the hot milk has been added to the eggs, pour the
mixture back into the saucepan on the stove.
5.
Whisk constantly for just a few minutes, until the mixture is
just slightly thickened (or until it reaches about 160 degrees F on a
thermometer). It will thicken more as it cools.
6.
Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla, and alcohol*, if
using.
7.
Pour the eggnog through a fine mesh strainer into a pitcher or
other container and cover with plastic wrap.
8.
Refrigerate until chilled. It will thicken as it cools. If you
want a thinner, completely smooth consistency, you can add the entire mixture
to a blender with 1 or 2 tablespoons of milk and blend until smooth.
9.
Serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg, and fresh whipped
cream, if desired.
10.
Store homemade eggnog in the fridge for up to one week.
https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/homemade-eggnog/
These sugar cookies are delish. The dough is softer than what I was used to but I love that I don’t have to refrigerate the dough or make it ahead of time. We baked these on Monday and didn’t have time to frost until Friday and they were still soft and delicious. We frosted them with the glaze recipe from Sally's Baking Edition, which worked beautifully.
The Best Sugar Cookies
2 C. salted butter (softened)
2 C. granulated sugar
2 Large eggs
2 Tbsp Vanilla extract
4 tsp. Baking powder
6 C. All-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 350°.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add butter and sugar and cream together on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and eggs. Mix for another 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the baking powder and mix. Add the flour two cups at a time. Don’t over-mix the dough - just mix until the flour is incorporated.
After the flour is added, the mixture should be firm but not dry or crumbly. If the dough seems too dry, add a tiny bit (about a teaspoon at a time) of vanilla or milk and mix again.
Roll and handful of dough out onto a lightly floured surface until it’s about ⅜” thick. Cut shapes with cookie cutters and transfer shapes to cookie sheets. They will not spread so they can be placed pretty close together.
Bake at 350° for 6-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cookies. They should be set and just barely starting to brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Let cool completely before frosting them.
Enjoy!
Recipe from twosisterscrafting.com
This is the recipe I like to use for jam & cheese braids because I never buy Bisquick. This is a quick and easy dough, too. It makes 4, but you can obviously scale that down. I use Mom's cream cheese filling and method of adding the jam, etc.
I'm also listing the fruit filling I make for those crazy boys of mine that don't like cream cheese.
Jam & Cheese Braid Dough (Yield: 4 braids)
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 T. yeast
1/2 c. warm water
2 eggs
4 c. flour
Combine the sour cream, sugar, butter, and salt in a saucepan and heat over med-low until the butter melts, stirring occasionally. Let it cool a bit so it's not too hot for the yeast (about 105-115 degrees. Don't stress too much about it, though, as long as it's not super warm).
Meanwhile, combine the yeast and warm water in a large mixing bowl and let stand for about 5 minutes. Stir in the sour cream mixture and eggs. Gradually stir in the flour (dough will be soft). Cover and chill overnight or at least 8 hours.
If you're making the fruit filling below, do that now.
Divide dough into fourths. Roll out each fourth on a greased cookie sheet into a 12x8-inch rectangle. Spread the filling (cream cheese or fruit) down the center. Cut the sides and fold over the center to form the braid.
Heat the oven to 375. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until browned.
Fruit Filling (enough for 1 braid)
Mix 1-2 T. cornstarch with 1/4 c. sugar in a saucepan. Add 1 small package of frozen fruit (any kind of berry is good, or a mix). It can be thawed or frozen. Bring it to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Let it simmer until it has thickened. Set aside to cool a bit while you shape the dough.
These French sugar cookies are so good with the orange zest and spices. We used a simple powdered sugar glaze to frost them but next time I'll frost with the royal icing as suggested. We also tripled the batch because the original recipe made a teeny, tiny batch. (I've tripled the cookies below, so you don't need to triple it again unless you want a big batch, but I didn't triple the icing recipe since we didn't try it.)
French Christmas Cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 C. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 C. granulated sugar
1/4 + 1/8 C. powdered sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 + 1/8 tsp ground cloves
3 large egg yolks (save the whites for the icing)
3 tsp. vanilla extract
zest of 3 medium oranges (or lemons)
3 C. all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the cookies
For the Icing:
2 egg whites, room temperature
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar, or a splash of fresh lemon juice
3 C. powdered sugar, sifted
1 drop of blue food coloring (or whatever colors you want)
Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the salt, cinnamon and cloves; mix to combine. Now, add in the egg yolk, orange zest and vanilla extract and mix until the egg is completely incorporated. Add the flour and mix just until the flour is incorporated; don't mix anymore than you need to.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and pat down so that you get a 1-inch disc. Refrigerate the dough until it's thoroughly chilled, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Take your dough out of the fridge and let sit on the counter for about 15 minutes. If you try to roll the dough right away, you'll end up with a lot of cracks in the dough.
Dust your counter space with flour and place the dough on this surface. Roll the dough to a 1/4" thickness, rotating the dough every once in a while; don't roll back and forth.
Cut dough with cookie cutters and place fairly close together on the prepared cookie sheets, as they will not spread much.
Bake the cookies for about 11-14 minutes. They should be golden along the edges. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes.
Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare the royal icing. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar or lemon juice just until the egg whites are frothy. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition. Once the icing is white and thick, stop mixing.
Remove about 1/3 cup of the icing and pour into a separate bowl. Add the drop of blue food coloring and whisk to combine. Paint the icing onto the cookies and decorate with other embellishments as desired.
We made these for Christmas Eve Eve in France and they were tasty. I cut back the amount of pistachios so I'd only have to use one bag of shelled nuts and there was plenty. Also didn't have almond flour but all-purpose worked fine. I've made those adjustments in this recipe.
Chocolate-Orange Sables
Orange dough:
¾ C butter, softened
1 orange, zested
1 C powdered sugar
1 large egg
1 Tbsp orange juice
2 ¾ C all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
¾ C chopped roasted salted pistachios
Chocolate dough:
1 C butter, softened
1 C powdered sugar
1 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ C all-purpose flour
¼ tsp salt
½ C unsweetened cocoa powder
¾ C chopped, roasted salted pistachios
1 C turbinado sugar
Line an 8-inch square baking pan with plastic wrap with enough to hang over the edges on two sides.
For orange dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, zest, and powdered sugar until fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add egg and orange juice, beating to combine. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and pistachios. Change stand mixer to paddle attachment. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating just until combined. Press dough into prepared pan, and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the chocolate dough: In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter, powdered sugar, orange juice, and vanilla until fluffy, 3-4 minutes. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, cocoa, and pistachios together. Change stand mixer to paddle attachment. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating just until combined. Spread chocolate dough over orange dough in pan, smoothing as much as possible. Cover layered dough and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.
Heat oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Place turbinado sugar in a shallow dish.
Remove pan from refrigerator. Using excess plastic wrap as handles, remove dough from pan. Cut into 2 x ¼-inch slices. Roll edges of dough in turbinado sugar to coat. Place on prepared pans at least ½ inch apart.
Bake until firm and just beginning to brown at the edges, 10-12 minutes. Let cool completely on wire racks.
Makes about 72 cookies
Adapted from BakefromScratch.com
