Description
These Peppermint Cocoa Blossoms are a holiday twist on the classic peanut butter blossom cookies! Richly chocolate and bursting with peppermint flavor, these are as delicious as they are festive and cute. Bonus: they’re really fun to make with kids while being a no-fuss kind of recipe!
Ingredients
Scale
For the Cookie Dough:
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar
- 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
For Assembly:
- 1 cup granulated sugar (for rolling the cookies)
- 24 candy cane Hershey kisses, wrappers removed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer), combine the butter and sugars and cream together until smooth and fluffy (using a hand or stand mixer).
- Beat in the egg yolks, vanilla, and peppermint extract.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, cornstarch, and salt.
- Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients – the dough will be thick and crumbly at first. Keep mixing until it forms a firm dough that holds its shape when pinched between your fingers.
- Using a 1-inch cookie scoop, scoop out the dough and roll into smooth balls with your hands. Roll each dough ball in granulated sugar and place on the baking sheets, keeping 2 inches in between the cookies.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are puffed and slightly cracking around the edges – they will not spread much.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately press a candy cane Hershey kiss in the center while they are still hot, being gentle as you press. The cookie will spread some and crack around the edges. The kiss will melt some and get kind of gooey – this is good! It allows the cookies to get really fudgy as they cool.
- Allow the cookies to cool completely on the tray.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: cookies