Every Christmas, my domestic side kicks into high gear and I make a ton of treats for friends, family & neighbors. I have a few old standards that I turn out each year (like my salted caramels), but this time I added a new treat to the mix: peppermint sugar cookies.

Like most of the things I make, it’s an easy recipe that tastes fancier than it really is. I used the basic sugar cookie recipe that I’ve been baking for years & just tweaked it a bit. The result: soft, melt-in-your-mouth cookies with flecks of peppermint in every bite.

I’m including a recipe for a minty royal icing if you want to add a glaze to dress them up a bit. It’s not necessary and I skip it if I’m baking multiple batches (I’ve baked 30 dozen so far this year), but it does add some eye appeal and you can even sprinkle on a little more crushed peppermint before the icing hardens if you want to make them extra-fancy.

This recipe makes 5 dozen small cookies; if you keep them bite-sized then each cookie contains about 85 calories, 3.5 grams of fat, 12.5 grams of carbs & 1 gram of protein. 

Peppermint Sugar Cookies 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened (not melted – that will change the texture)
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon peppermint extract 
• 3 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1/4 cup crushed peppermint candies (or 4-5 crushed candy canes) – I use a food processor or put them in a plastic bag & beat ’em up with a rolling pin
• 1/4 cup Andes peppermint crunch baking chips  (if you can’t find them, just double the amount of crushed peppermint) 

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 350F & line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set out cooling racks if you have them (the air circulation makes a difference in the texture of the finished product). 

Cream together butter and sugar for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add egg and extracts and mix until combined. A cup at a time, add the flour until just combined, then gently fold in crushed peppermints and baking chips until they’re incorporated into the dough. Don’t over mix! 

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and evenly space apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper (I can fit 15 – 5 rows, 3 columns – on each sheet).

  
Bake cookies for 10 minutes. They’ll still be light – browned edges mean they’re overcooked.  

Cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes, then move cookies to your cooling racks until completely cool.

  
Minty Royal Icing & Crunch Topping (optional):

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup confectioners sugar 
• 2 tablespoons warm water
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 3-4 tablespoons crushed peppermint candies (or red sugar sprinkles  if you’re tired of crushing mints at this point) 

Directions:

In a small bowl, whisk sugar, water & extract together. Dip tops of cookies in icing or brush on tops of cookies with a pastry or basting brush, then sprinkle each cookie with a bit of crushed peppermint or sugar sprinkles & let the topping harden.

————-

That’s it! These cookies taste great with my peppermint cocoa, by the way. But that’s a post for another day!