Although I love all of my holiday cookies, my Gluten-free Peppermint Surprise Cookies seem to be the star of the show each year.
They do have an unfair advantage though-SPOILER ALERT!-in addition to their rich chocolate exterior, each one also has a See's peppermint candy at its center. And who can resist that? Right?
If you don't have a See's store near you and can't wait for an order of these amazing chocolate covered peppermints to arrive, you can substitute your favorite chocolate covered mini peppermint patties, which will result in smaller cookies but twice as many of them. And so far, no one has ever complained that I baked too many Gluten-free Peppermint Surprise Cookies.
I've also been offered a ridiculous amount of money to bake someone another dozen of them, but that's another story...
Decorating Gluten-Free Peppermint Surprise Cookies
Each cookie is topped with a teaspoon of melted white chocolate and some crushed peppermint candy. You can either purchase a peppermint candy topping, like this peppermint crunch from King Arthur Flour or put a dozen candy canes into a gallon freezer bag and crush them with your rolling pin.
It's inevitable that a few of these cookies will burst their seams-you can easily cover up small cracks with the melted chocolate. Plus, you need to have a few for quality control sampling, didn't you? I thought so.
Storing or Packaging the Cookies
Store in an airtight cookie tin for up to a week. Make sure the white chocolate topping is dry before putting them into the container. I usually put wax paper between the layers of cookies to keep the decorations from sticking to the bottom of the next layer of cookies.
If you are gifting an assortment of cookies, these pair nicely with my gluten-free chocolate shortbread cookies and my gluten-free Merry Christmas cookies.
Gluten-free Peppermint Surprise Cookies
Ingredients
- 12 oz butter Plugra or another European-style butter is great for this recipe.
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup dark brown sugar
- 1 cup dutch process cocoa powder I used Penzey's Dutch Process Cocoa.
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon Baking soda
- 3 cups gluten free cup-for-cup flour I use King Arthur's cup-for-cup flour.
- 24 peppermint patties I always use the See's peppermints.
Topping
- 1 bag white chocolate chips I prefer Ghirardelli.
- 1 cup crushed peppermint candy
Instructions
- Cream butter, sugars, and eggs together in your mixer. Once fluffy, add the cocoa powder and mix well.
- Add flour, salt, and baking powder to bowl and mix until combined.
- Cover mixing bowl with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator to chill for 1-2 hours.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Take one-two tablespoons of chilled dough and flatten into a thin disk. Wrap around the peppermint candy, covering it completely and evenly. Place on cookie sheet leaving an inch between cookies.
- Bake 15 minutes.
- Place on wire racks to cool. Allow to cool completely before decorating.
- Melt white chocolate chips in a double boiler. After all chips are melted and you are left with a smooth chocolate, remove from heat. Drizzle 1-2 teaspoons of chocolate over a cookie, then sprinkle a teaspoon of crushed peppermint candies over the top. Let the chocolate topping set for at least 1 hour before packaging cookies.
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