Peppermint Sugar Cookies

One of the most popular recipes on Our Best Bites are our sugar cookies.  Way back in the beginning years of this blog I posted a tutorial for Glace Icing. Iced sugar cookies usually require quite a bit of time and effort. These days I’m all about the drop-sugar-cookie. All the buttery goodness of a traditional sugar cookie and none of the annoying rolling and cutting and re-rolling and re-cutting.  This recipe adds a festive touch of peppermint for the most amazingly simple, delicious holiday cookie that’s crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the center.  

Ingredient and Recipe Notes

• Simple Ingredients – The dough is simple, with all the right things: butter (only REAL butter!), flour, eggs, baking powder, salt, and both vanilla and peppermint extracts.
• A Little Sparkle – Rolling the dough balls in sugar before they hit the cookie sheet gives these cookies a little sparkle and crunch.  One of these days I’m going to try rolling them in candy cane sugar, which I just make by pulsing candy canes in a food processor until nice and fine.  

How to Make Peppermint Sugar Cookies

1. First, mix up your dough. Combine your flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Beat some butter and sugar, add a couple of eggs, followed by the vanilla, and peppermint extracts. Mix in your dry ingredients.
2. Then use a cookie scoop to create uniform size balls. Roll each until nice and round, and give them a quick roll in some additional sugar.

2. Place the balls on a cookie sheet and press down just a little bit.  If you flatten the cookies too much, they will turn out super flat and won’t have much shape.  You just barely want to tap them down enough to get a bit of a flat surface on top so you can then sprinkle them with crushed peppermint candies.

3. Then it’s into the oven. As the cookies bake, the peppermints melt into pretty little speckled pools of goodness.

You can eat them warm, or let them cool completely.  These cookies stack well and work perfectly in little containers for gifting.

If you really want to pull out all the stops- give them a little drizzle of chocolate.   Too much would overwhelm the delicate flavors, but just a thin drizzle is absolutely perfect and makes them taste like peppermint bark.

Happy Baking!

FAQs

Can I make these ahead of time? Albsolutely. Feel free to make them all the way through a day ahead of time, or make the dough, roll the balls, roll in sugar, and then store the dough balls in the fridge for a day or two. When ready to bake, simply let them sit at room temperature for a few minutes, then flatten each ball, top with candy cane pieces, and bake.

Related Recipes

• Small Batch Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies
• Tutorial: Cookie Decorating with Glace Icing
• Giant Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookie
• Peppermint White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Did You Make These?

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Peppermint Sugar Cookies

4.50 from 2 votes

An easy holiday sugar cookie with no rolling and cutting required!

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 12 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

ServingsServings0

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Ingredients

• 14 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar plus more for rolling
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candies or candy canes
• optional: melted chocolate for drizzling

Instructions

• Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.
• Using a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, and vanilla and peppermint extracts and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low, slowly add flour mixture, and beat until combined.
• If dough is extra soft, refrigerate for 30-60 minutes until firmed up. Place about 1/2 cup extra sugar in a dish. Use a cookie scoop to make uniform size balls and roll them in the sugar and place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Using a buttered and sugared bottom of a flat-bottomed drinking glass, flatten each ball just slightly (about 3/4-inch thickness) and sprinkle with with peppermint candies.
• Bake until edges are set and beginning to barely brown but centers are still soft and puffy, 10-12 minutes. Let cookies cool on sheet for 10 minutes. Serve warm, or transfer to wire rack and cool completely. If desired, drizzle with a little chocolate.

Notes

• These cookies are great sandwiched with peppermint or chocolate ice cream, too!

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