Chewy Peppermint Mocha Cookies (SO GOOD!)
These chewy peppermint mocha cookies are easy to make, have fantastic flavor & texture, and look beautiful on holiday cookie platters!
After developing this absolutely delicious recipe for triple dark chocolate cookies (that won my daughter a 1st place ribbon at our county fair!), I knew I wanted to see if I could put a festive spin on it and turn them into some cookies that would be perfect for the holiday season!
These are the same rich, chocolaty cookies, but with the addition of coffee & peppermint, they’re basically like your favorite Christmas latte in cookie form. 😁 They’re some of the best cookies you’ll make this Christmas.
Here’s why you’ll love this recipe:
- They taste delicious. I mean, really, really delicious. The recipe has a nice blend of chocolate, peppermint, and coffee flavor that all just works so well together.
- They’re super chewy cookies. Each bite will just dissolve in your mouth!
- They’re really easy to make. It’s a pretty no-fuss recipe, and you can easily freeze the cookies if you want to make them ahead of time.
- They’re really pretty Christmas cookies! These easy peppermint mocha cookies are perfect for holiday cookie exchanges, for Christmas potlucks & parties, and to just enjoy at your family Christmas gatherings.
Ingredients you’ll need for these chewy peppermint mocha cookies:
- Unsalted butter at room temperature (or just very slightly softened in the microwave)
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar – gives the cookies some extra chewiness & softness
- Vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt – help enhances the flavor
- Unsweetened dark cocoa powder – I always use the Hershey’s Special Dark. It tastes great in cookies & cakes!
- Ground coffee (Regular coffee is just fine to give it that coffee flavor, but you can use espresso powder if you have it. I always use decaf coffee just to omit some of the caffeine in these cookies, but you can go either way. You can also use instant coffee grounds.)
- Dark chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips – I like using dark chocolate chips in this recipe for the extra rich chocolate flavor, but if you’d prefer, you can use semisweet and they’ll taste just fine!
- Andes Creme de Menthe baking chips – to add some of the minty flavor
- Crushed candy canes – you can crush them yourself, but you can also save yourself the hassle and just get a bag on your baking aisle. They’re only $2 at my local grocery store, and totally worth it for me to not have to crush candy canes myself!
Just a note: You might be surprised that this recipe doesn’t call for peppermint extract, but with the Andes candies & the crushed candy canes, I think they have plenty of peppermint flavor.
Recipe Directions
The directions for this recipe are pretty basic, but I’ll walk you through the main steps.
Make the dough
Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer (an electric hand mixer is fine if that’s what you have), cream the butter & sugars together on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. This process helps deliver chewy & soft cookies. 😋
Add in the eggs & vanilla, and continue to mix just until everything is incorporated – about 15 seconds.
In a separate medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, coffee, and cocoa powder, and then gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients on low speed, just until everything is mixed. Scrape the sides & bottom of the bowl with a spatula and give the mixer another quick spin.
Add in the chocolate chips & the Andes baking chips, and mix for a few seconds.
Chill Dough
Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. (You can let it chill overnight if you prefer. If you want to make the dough a few days ahead of time, then just transfer the dough to a different airtight container and place in the fridge.)
Note: I know, impatience gets the best of us, but you definitely want to chill the dough for at least a little while before you bake it. I’ve done several side-by-side tests, and the cookies that were chilled before hand came out much chewier than the ones where I didn’t chill the dough. It’s worth the wait!
Roll & Bake
Remove the dough from the fridge, preheat the oven to 375, and roll dough into balls. I never use one, but you can use a medium cookie scoop if you’d like.
Once you roll the dough into a ball, you’ll gently roll the top part of the cookie dough balls in a plate of crushed candy canes so that the top part of the cookie gets covered a bit.
No need for covering the bottom – just covering the tops (and you’ll get some around the sides when you roll them) of the cookies helps to give them a festive look + enough peppermint flavor.
Place 12 dough balls on a cookie sheet, bake for 9 minutes at 375, remove from oven, and then allow to cool on baking pan for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Repeat with the other pan of cookie dough balls.
Note: I always use these USA pans when I bake (they bake cookies SO well), but if you’re using different pans that are prone to sticking, you might want to consider lining your cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Questions about this recipe:
Can you freeze these cookies?
You sure can! Just place them in an airtight container and put them in the freezer! If you’d like, you can put wax paper between layers of cookies, but mine don’t have a problem with sticking to one another, so I don’t bother.
How long will they stay fresh?
They maintain their soft & chewy texture for a good 4-5 days after making them, which isn’t very common for cookies! I think they’re probably best within the first 3 days of making them, but they’ll still hang in there with good flavor for another couple days.
Do I HAVE to chill the dough?
Yes. It REALLY does make a huge difference. It doesn’t just keep them from spreading when they bake, they come out with much better flavor, they retain more moisture, and they stay fresh longer if the dough has been chilled. It really is worth it!
Have so much fun making this recipe! I have a feeling these are about to become some of your favorite holiday cookies!
Other Christmas cookie recipes you might like:
- No-Chill Pumpkin Spice Cut-Out Cookies
- Spiced Orange Sugar Cookies
- Triple Chocolate Peppermint Christmas Cookies
- Delicious Cut-Out Sugar Cookie Recipe
- Soft & Chewy Toffee Snickerdoodles
Chewy Peppermint Mocha Cookies (SO GOOD!)
Ingredients
- 2 sticks 1 c unsalted butter at room temp or very slightly softened in the microwave
- 1 c packed brown sugar
- ⅔ c granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tsp vanilla
- 2 ½ c flour
- ½ c unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa I use Hershey’s Special Dark
- 3 tbsp ground coffee I use decaf*
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 c dark chocolate chips you can use semisweet if you prefer
- 1 c Andes Creme de Menthe baking chips
- Crushed candy canes - for rolling about 4-5 tbsp
Instructions
- Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment (or a hand-held electric mixer), cream together the butters & the sugar on medium speed for about 2 minutes.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula & then add in eggs & vanilla. Mix just until blended (10-15 seconds) on medium speed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, coffee grounds, and salt.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add in dry ingredients. Mix just until combined. Fold in chocolate chips & Andes baking chips.
- Cover mixing bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. (You can chill longer - even overnight - if that's more convenient.)
- Remove dough from fridge, preheat oven to 375, and roll out dough to form 24 cookies. Roll the top of each dough ball in a shallow bowl or plate of crushed candy canes, just to lightly cover the top and around the sides.
- Put 12 dough balls on each baking pan. (If you aren't using USA Pans as your cookie sheets, you may want to consider laying down parchment paper to prevent cookies from sticking.)
- Bake one pan at a time for 9 minutes at 375 & remove from oven. Allow cookies to cool on pans for about 5-10 minutes, and then transfer to a cooling rack and allow them to completely cool before transferring them to an airtight container.
- ENJOY! Share with friends & family - they'll love 'em!
Notes
- These cookies freeze well!
To freeze: place the cookies flat on a cookie sheet, place the sheet in the freezer for about 30 min, and then move the cookies into a plastic container with a lid & store in the freezer. To thaw: you can either set them out of the freezer for a couple of hours, or you can microwave them to speed up the thawing process. I've done both, especially if we're impatient for cookies. 🙂 - You can easily halve the batch if you want to just make a small amount. All of the instructions are the same, just halve the ingredients! 🙂