I've never understood the common obsession with chocolatey baked goods that aren't insanely rich. Don't get me wrong - I like chocolate - but that's just it, I like chocolate, not a pinch of cocoa flavor. Chocolate chip cookies always tasted better to me with the chips on the side, and chocolate cakes would have been more delicately delicious if they were vanilla. So when I make a chocolate baked good intended at least partly for me, it's got to be rich.
Cookies that secretly want to be brownies but like their density better definitely satisfy my chocolate baked good craving (and even are better than brownies to me). It seems like most people don't make chocolate cookies without making them chocolate chocolate chip cookies, but I don't want bursts of chocolate that break up the chewy texture - I want a kick of something salty. And since it's Christmastime, something peppermint.
Well, I only had six miniature candy canes, so just throwing a bunch of those into batter for about a hundred cookies (remember how I can't bake in small quantities?) wouldn't do. Where I didn't have enough candy canes, I did have a lot of peppermint bark. I threw the six miniature candy canes and a big slab of peppermint bark into my food processor to create a pepperminty chocolate powder to throw into the smooth, rich cookies for frequent bursts of minty holiday cheer.
Peppermint brownie cookies
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups peppermint bark and candy canes, mostly peppermint bark (mine was white and dark chocolate with broken candy canes)
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 0.25 cups glucose (keeps them moist, chewy, and shiny)
- 0.75 cups granulated sugar
- 0.75 cups brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 0.5 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 ounces melted dark chocolate
- 1.25 cups flour
- 0.75 cups cocoa powder
- 0.5 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
Preparation:
- Break up the peppermint bark and candy canes and place in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is finely ground. Take a break for a minute or so if the food processor starts to get warm so that the chocolate does not clump. Set ground bark and candy canes aside.
- Cream butter, glucose, and sugars together. Beat for roughly three minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until combined.
- Melt the dark chocolate, add, and beat until combined.
- In another bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and kosher salt. Combine these dry ingredients with the wet mixture and mix until combined.
- Add ground bark and candy canes, and lightly mix just until combined. Refrigerate the dough for about thirty minutes to an hour - until firm, but still soft enough to mold.
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Arrange teaspoon-sized balls of dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then pat the tops of the cookies down so that they are no more than half an inch tall. If the dough becomes soft while portioning out cookies, place the baking sheet in the refrigerator until firm again.
- Bake for roughly 10-12 minutes. Like brownies, they are done when they are slightly underbaked and will firm up as they cool. Let cool on the cookie sheet until you are able to move them to a cooling rack with the help of a spatula.
Yields roughly 4 dozen cookies.