A Luscious Minty Christmas-y Delight

I posed a question on Instagram recently, asking what kind of recipes people wanted to see on the blog this holiday season.  While a few requested dinner or brunch dishes, the overwhelming demand was for Christmas cookies!  Of course, this is a huge category with about a million options to choose from… Where does one begin?  Well, when I think of baking sweets around the holidays, three seasonal flavors come to mind for me: peppermint, orange, and ginger.  Whether it’s peppermint bark or a peppermint mocha soy latte at Starbucks, something about chocolate and mint together just feels like Christmas.  It’s also a flavor combo I happen to really love.  I tested this recipe repeatedly to adjust each ingredient to perfection, until we finally deemed it worthy of going up on the blog.  I think the ideal size for this cookie is about 2 inches, made from is the smallest scoop in this set, at 1.5 tablespoons of dough each.  They are positively addictive, they’re sweet but not cloying (especially if you use dark chocolate for the top) and that beautiful red and white sprinkle ensures that these not only taste like Christmas, but look like Christmas too!

Vegan Ingredients

For this recipe, I use Earth Balance vegan butter sticks, Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer and Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Chips (if you live in a warm climate I don’t recommend buying chocolate chips online, as I have before and they arrived as melted blocks, but you can find them at Target, Whole Foods, etc.),  to replace what would normally be non-vegan ingredients in a traditional cookie recipe.  Though I have not made a non-vegan version of these cookies, I feel pretty confident that you could use real butter, real egg and regular chocolate chips and it should work just fine.  But, if you’re trying to incorporate more plant-based foods into your diet and you’re a baker like me, the three aforementioned ingredients should become staples in your kitchen (I also love the Enjoy Life semi-sweet mega chunks which are fabulous in cookies!).

As a side note, because the vegan butter is already salted, I didn’t find the recipe needed any additional salt but if you use a different unsalted brand you can decide if you want to add a little (I’d keep it small, 1/4 tsp at most).  I think you’ll find that there’s nothing about these that tastes “vegan,” rather they taste like a classic decadent holiday treat with a lovely symphony of fudgy brownie-like cookie, smooth chocolatey topping and crunchy peppermint sprinkle.  I hope you find them as enjoyable as we do.

Crushing Candy Canes

I find the best way to make the peppermint sprinkle is to buy regular candy canes and crush them myself.  You could use peppermint “star brite” candies (the round ones) but you’ll have less of a red to white ratio, as those are predominantly white in the middle.  I take a small baggie and a rolling pin, put the candy canes in and press all the air out, then use the rolling pin to crush the pieces just by applying pressure on top (actual rolling not really necessary).  But if you want to use a rubber mallet and whack it for a little holiday stress relief, be my guest (haha)!  The key is just to break them down into mostly small pieces but not make everything into dust either.  You want to have a nice variety of small chunk sizes.  Just remember the bigger the chunks the more likely they are to stick in your teeth.

My Favorite Double Boiler Cheat

The best way to melt chocolate chips for cookie-dipping is to put them in a double boiler, which (in case you’re not familiar) is basically two pots that fit one on top of the other, so you can have water simmering in the bottom and the steam heats the pot on top.  This allows you to melt the chocolate gently so it doesn’t burn, as it likely would over direct heat on the stove.  But if you don’t have room for another two pots in your kitchen or you don’t want to spend the money on a full double boiler, I would suggest getting this universal double boiler top.  I have one myself, and it’s great because it fits in pretty much any pot you already have and you can store it with your bowls.  If you don’t have time to acquire one of these and are in a pinch, you can try melting your chocolate chips in the microwave at 50% power in small increments, checking and mixing often so the chocolate doesn’t scorch or get greasy.