
In our opinion, winter perfection would be a brisk walk through the snow, then warming up by a crackling fire with a mug of hot chocolate or eggnog and a plate of these pretty peppermint cookies. Sounds like heaven, right? Trust us, these peppermint meltaways are the perfect cookie for a wintery afternoon break…paired, of course, with a soundtrack of your favorite holiday tunes (we’re partial to Mariah & the Vincent Guaraldi Trio).
These cookies have a velvety, melt-in-your-mouth texture and are topped with a pretty pink icing, plus a shower of peppermint candies. There's just a touch of peppermint extract in the dough to lend the cookies a festive, but not overpowering, minty flavor.
To keep these cookies as delicate as possible, there’s no egg, and instead of all-purpose, we use delicate cake flour. Cake flour has a lower protein content, so it results in a less dense cookie. Though you may be used to pulling out your stand mixer or electric mixer for holiday cookies, these have no “creaming step” for the butter and sugar, which means it’s easiest to just pulse this dough up in the food processor.
The glaze should be about the thickness of honey. To keep the glaze from running down the sides, dollop it right in the center and just let it spread a little bit.
Looking for more pepperminty holiday treats? We love our peppermint bark and white chocolate peppermint blondies too.
Made these? Let us know how it went in the comments below.
Ingredients
Cookies
- 1 1/4 cups
(150 g.) cake flour
- 1/2 cup
(60 g.) powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp.
cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp.
baking powder
- 1/4 tsp.
kosher salt
- 1/2 cup
(1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/4 tsp.
peppermint extract
Icing
- 1/2 cup
(60 g.) powdered sugar
- 2 tsp.
milk or water
- 1
small drop red liquid food coloring
Crushed peppermint candies, for sprinkling
Directions
Cookies
- Step 1Preheat oven to 350° and line a large baking sheet with parchment.
- Step 2In a food processor, pulse flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt a few times to combine. Add butter and peppermint extract and pulse until a cohesive ball of dough forms.
- Step 3Scoop 28 rounded teaspoons (10 grams) dough. Arrange 1" apart on prepared sheets. Press down to slightly flatten.
- Step 4Bake cookies until just browned on the bottoms, 8 to 12 minutes. Let cool completely.
Icing
- Step 1In a small bowl, whisk powdered sugar and milk until thick and spreadable. Using a toothpick, add a very small amount of food coloring to icing and whisk until pale pink.
- Step 2Spoon about 1 teaspoon icing over each cookie and spread, leaving a slight border. Sprinkle with candies. Let stand until icing sets, about 30 minutes.

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