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By Cassie Rice, December 7, 2009 5:35 pm

What is your favorite candy?

One of my favorite candies is Junior Mints. I’ve always been addicted to chocolate, especially in combination with peppermint.

Since the holidays are just around the corner and peppermint is one of the big holiday flavors, I thought I’d put together a chocolate peppermint recipe that is different from recipes containing candy canes or peppermint bark. What I came up with was chocolate peppermint thumbprint cookies. They’re basically cookies, rich in chocolate flavor, with a dollop of a smooth, peppermint icing in the middle. The combination of the rich chocolate and the peppermint icing remind me of the holiday season, getting together with family and relaxing by the fireplace each time that I take a bite.

Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprint Cookies

(Printable Page)

Makes: 40 – 50 cookies
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Bake Time: 13 – 17 minutes

Ingredients:

Cookies
1 ½ cups Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Flour (if you don’t have this flour on hand, you can make your own with this recipe)
1/3 cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon Authentic Foods Vanilla Powder or 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
¾ teaspoons salt
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted in microwave for 1 minute
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Peppermint Icing
1 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ – ½ teaspoon peppermint extract (use ¼ teaspoon if you do not want the peppermint flavor to be too strong)
1 ½ tablespoons water

Directions:

Cookies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Flour, cocoa powder, Authentic Foods Vanilla Powder, and salt until fully combined. In a bowl of an electric mixer, cream the unsalted butter and granulated sugar together. Then mix in the flour mixture, the melted semisweet chocolate chips, and the eggs. Mix until a dough forms.

Make 1 inch balls out of the dough and place them on the cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Then use your thumb to make a thumbprint in the center of each ball. Bake the cookies in the oven for 13 to 17 minutes or until the cookies are crisp on the outside. Let the cookies cool on a rack for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Then place a dollop of peppermint icing on the thumbprint of each cookie.

Peppermint Icing
Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Use a Ziploc bag with the corner cut off or a pastry bag to pipe out the icing onto the center of each thumbprint cookie.