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These easy Peppermint Sugar Cookies are soft and chewy cookies with peppermint pieces and white chocolate chips. Festive, flavorful, and hard not to get addicted to, they’re the perfect homemade cookies for Christmas and just soaking up those holiday vibes.
Why This Recipe Works
- Soft and chewy. This minty recipe is an adaptation of my tried and true homemade sugar cookies recipe. These peppermint sugar cookies have the same soft and chewy texture with an added coolness and sweetness from the peppermint pieces and white chocolate!
- Bold, but not overwhelming. These cookies are also made with peppermint extract, so they have plenty of flavor without being overpowering.
- Super quick. These easy Christmas cookies come together in just 20 minutes! They’ll look amazing on your holiday cookie plate, and they make the perfect treat for Santa Claus. And, even though these cookies are ideal for Christmas, they’re also good enough to make year round!
Recipe Ingredients
Peppermint sugar cookies are made with the same ingredients as my classic sugar cookies, plus peppermint extract, peppermint pieces, and white chocolate chips. Here’s your ingredient lineup (check out the recipe card below for exact amounts):
- All-purpose flour – Be careful not to pack the flour in your measuring cups. Otherwise, you risk over-measuring your flour and making your cookies dry.
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Unsalted butter – Bring your butter to room temperature before you begin.
- Sugar – This recipe calls for both granulated sugar and light brown sugar.
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Peppermint extract – You should be able to find this along with the vanilla extract in the baking aisle of your grocery store.
- White chocolate chips – Feel free to use semisweet or dark chocolate chips instead, if preferred.
- Crushed peppermint pieces
What Kind of Peppermint Candy Should I Use?
I recommend using either candy canes or Brach’s peppermint candies for this recipe. They both have great peppermint flavor, they’re inexpensive, and they’re easy to crush. Simply place them in a plastic bag and pound them with a rolling pin! If you want bigger chunks of peppermint in your cookies, don’t crush your mints too finely. You can also often find pre-crushed peppermint pieces in the baking aisle in certain stores.
These cookies are anything but complicated. All you have to do is make your dough, add in the peppermint pieces and chocolate chips, and bake! For the full set of directions, check out the recipe card below.
- Combine the dry ingredients. First, preheat the oven to 350°F and line the baking sheets. Then, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl.
- Cream the butter and sugars, then add the egg and extracts. Cream the butter and sugars together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. Next, stir in the egg, mix until well combined, add the vanilla and peppermint extracts, and mix again.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly – the dough will be thick and shouldn’t be sticky. Do not over-mix it.
- Add the chocolate and peppermint. Once it’s well combined, stir in the white chocolate chips and peppermint pieces. Then, create 1 1/2 tablespoon sized balls of cookie dough and set them on the baking sheet.
- Bake. Bake your cookies for 7-9 minutes. The cookies will spread and the centers will look soft, but done. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheets for 4-5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Tips & Recipe Variations
- Don’t over-mix the dough. You want to mix enough for everything to be fully incorporated, but stop once you reach that point so the cookies don’t turn out tough or dense.
- Don’t over-bake the cookies. They may look a little puffy when you first take them out of the oven, but they’ll fall as they cool.
- Drizzle your cookies with chocolate. In addition to putting the white chocolate chips in your cookie batter, you can melt some of them and drizzle the chocolate over your cookies once they’ve cooled.
- Add more chocolate chips. When your cookies come out of the oven, you can lightly press some white chocolate chips on top to make them stand out!
Yes, it’s easy to make these peppermint sugar cookies months in advance! Simply pack the cooled cookies in a ziploc bag, squeeze all the extra air out, and store them in the freezer. You can layer your cookies between parchment paper, if desired, to prevent them from sticking together. When you want to eat your cookies, just thaw them in the fridge and enjoy.
Proper Storage
- Countertop. These cookies should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container or a ziploc bag with all the air squeezed out. They’ll stay perfectly soft and chewy for 4-5 days! I recommend enjoying your sugar cookies within a week of making them.
- Freezer. If you want your cookies to last for longer than a week, you can pop them in the freezer. Keep them in an airtight plastic bag and thaw them out before eating them. Frozen cookies will last for about 3 months!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 40
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These peppermint sugar cookies are packed with crushed peppermint and white chocolate chips. They’re a perfect pick for your holiday cookie tray!
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups (358g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (224g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (233g) granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons (28g) light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 1/4 cups (211g) white chocolate chips
- 6 tablespoons crushed peppermint pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugars together in a large mixer bowl on medium speed until light in color and fluffy. You should be able to see the change in color happen and know it’s ready.
- Add the egg and mix until well combined.
- Add the vanilla extract and peppermint extract and mix until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients and mix until the dough is well combined. It will be thick and shouldn’t be sticky. Do not over mix.
- Once it’s well combined, add the white chocolate chips and peppermint pieces and use a rubber spatula to help it come together to form a more cohesive ball.
- Create 1 1/2 tablespoon sized balls of cookie dough. Gently roll into a ball, then set the balls on the baking sheet.
- Bake cookies for 7-9 minutes. The cookies will spread and the centers will look soft, but should look done. Remove just as the edges begin to turn golden. Don’t overbake. The cookies may look a little puffy when you take them out of the oven but will fall a bit as they cool.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for 4-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- To store: These cookies should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container or a ziploc bag with all the air squeezed out. They’ll stay perfectly soft and chewy for 4-5 days! I recommend enjoying your sugar cookies within a week of making them.
- To freeze: If you want your cookies to last for longer than a week, you can pop them in the freezer. Keep them in an airtight plastic bag and thaw them out before eating them. Frozen cookies will last for about 3 months!
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 124
- Sugar: 8.6 g
- Sodium: 68.2 mg
- Fat: 6.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 15.2 g
- Protein: 1.4 g
- Cholesterol: 18 mg
Yum! This looks delicious! Question: I don’t have peppermint extract. What could i use to substitute?
You could try mint extract. It’s not quite the same but could be ok. I’m not sure of another option. The peppermint pieces add flavor too, so maybe that’d just have to be enough?
Can I omit the white chocolate chips, or substitutes to my sweet? I don’t care for white chocolate
Yes, you can use regular chocolate chips, if you prefer.
I love thi8s recipe but no longer have the freezer space for lots of Christmas cookies. Can I make ahead a freeze the dough?
That should be fine.
Is it supposed to be like 2 and 3/4 cups of flour or just 3/4 cup twice? This is probably a dumb question haha
It’s 2 and 3/4 cups of flour
Came out Amazing!!! I didn’t have peppermint extract, so I used mint and was still good.
I don’t have any peppermint extract could I use 2 drops of peppermint oil.
I’ve never used that to be able to advise on how much, but I imagine it would be fine to use it.
Hi, I have rolled the dough into ball shape size and it won’t spread when I bake. Pls advise. Thanks 😊
Hey Janet, this happened to me too. When you roll them into smallish balls, try flattening them out when you roll. Not to flat but not a perfect ball, that helped to get them looking almost perfect
Hi! I don’t have peppermint extract could I substitute with peppermint tea??
I’m not sure that would work well. I don’t know much about the flavor of peppermint tea, but you would probably need a considerable amount more to be able to taste the peppermint and that would thin out the cookie dough too much.