Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies are great for your holiday cookie swap!

You guys, this has been one heck of a month so far. You wouldn’t believe the size of my to-do list before the baby arrives in a few short weeks, on top of my normal hustle-and-bustle Christmas to-do list. Phew! It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Anyway. I’ve been craving cookies lately and I couldn’t resist adding a little holiday flare.

You see, we moved 4 times in the past year and a few weeks ago, when we went to get out our Christmas decorations, we couldn’t find our ornaments! I was heart broken. I had that gut feeling like we somehow left them in the attic of our first house or the garage of our rental house. Someone would have called, right?

Well, I couldn’t not add some decor to our Christmas tree, so I ended up going to the store and buying an arm load of candy canes. They were perfectly festive to add a little sparkle to our Christmas tree.

Then, Liam discovered what a candy cane is and how delicious they are. I mean, it’s CANDY cane, for goodness sakes. Yes, he learned that word very quickly. I had to put most of the candy canes away, off of the tree and the ones that remained, stayed out of toddler-reach on the top of the tree…

…That is, until we found the ornaments! They were nestled safely at my brother-in-law’s house. Don’t ask me how they got there. After weeks of having a half covered candy cane Christmas tree, we finally decorated the tree with our favorite ornaments this weekend!

Liam was a great ‘helper’ placing the non-breakable ornaments on his half of the tree.

How cute is this?

Now, that we have ornaments on the tree, I have an abundant flow of candy canes waiting to be consumed.

The answer: cookies.

I’m not a HUGE peppermint fan, but I loved how these chocolate candy cane cookies turned out. The core of the cookies is straight-up chocolate. Then you get melted chocolate chips in every bite, along with a satisfying sweet and crunchy peppermint flavor from the crushed candy canes.

It’s holiday perfection, if you ask me.

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

adapted from Chocolate & Carrots

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup crushed peppermint (equivalent to 4 candy canes, crushed)

How-To

1. In a mixer or bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and sugar together. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract until blended.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cornstarch and salt.
3. By hand, stir in the dry ingredients.
4. Gently fold in the chocolate chips and peppermint.
5. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to overnight.
6. Preheat the oven to 325°F.
7. Roll your dough into 2 tablespoon balls. Place 2 inches apart on parchment covered baking sheets. Bake for 13-20 minutes or until the edges are just light brown.
8. Servings: 15 cookies