My sister and I join my mom annually to have a two-day bake-a-thon. My mom is very traditional in our cookie making, and they are the same ones every year (mostly ITALIAN). But lately, my sister and I have been trying to get her to expand her baking horizons. My sister wanted to make something with peppermint bark, and we found a ton of peppermint bark cookie recipes online. This is adapted from one of the many. We like this one because there is a whole package of chocolate pudding thrown in. That makes for a dense, tender batter. And we use Ghirardelli peppermint bark, so the cookie is smoother, and you don’t have a ton of crunch going on as with other coarser peppermint bark.
We add a garnish of cut peppermint bark on top of the cookie midway through baking. I recommend taking the sheets out of the oven to do this, so you don’t burn yourself. And carefully press the garnish into the half-cooked cookie so it stays put-not fall off and melts into a giant mess.
Happy holiday baking!
Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Chocolate Crinkles
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 regular sugar
1 package of chocolate instant pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups chopped Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark, (set aside 1/2 cup of it for topping)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350˚.
In a small bowl, combine flour and soda then set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and two sugars. Next, beat in the pudding mix until well blended (scraping sides often with a spatula). Next, add eggs and vanilla, and mix until well blended. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Stop mixing a few times to scrape the sides again. The dough will be stiff, and will not want to combine but take your time, it will be fine. Just be careful to not overwork it. Stir in the 1 1/2 cup chopped peppermint bark. Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment. Drop dough by the well-rounded teaspoonfuls, 2 inches apart.
Bake 10-12 minutes. But halfway through, pull sheets out and add a sprinkling of reserved peppermint bark on each half baked cookie, gently pressing into the dough. Bake for the remainder of the time, and try putting them back in the oven on different racks then they were originally for even baking.
Once lightly golden on the edges, pull them out of the oven. Let sit on sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.
Flora is an award-winning creative director in Chicago turned food and lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. She is also author to the popular BEE NATIVE! gardening book series and various children's books that celebrate the wonder and hard work of bees and butterflies. Her blog and social spaces inspire thousands to create, learn, cook, grow, and craft, making their world lovelier one pixel/petal/seed/bite/stitch/brushstroke at a time. Follow her on all the social spaces, YouTube, and Amazon, and get creative!
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