Soft Chocolate Mint Cookies with Candy Cane

I have some leftover candy canes that I bought from after-Christmas sales. And then a friend of mine told me that she baked some candy cane cookies during Christmas to give to her friends and it was delicious. So, "Ding Dong", that's it, I can make some cookies with the candy canes that I have. I know chocolate and mint pair well together and I wanted to incorporate the candy cane with the cookies so my experiment began. As you can see, the candy cane melted while baking in the oven, nevertheless it still created a beautiful effect on the cookies.

This recipe produced soft cookies. Since a dark cocoa powder was used, it's slightly bitter with the fragrant of mint, quite refreshing actually. And the melted crushed candy canes gave a little crunch to the soft cookies. This recipe yield about 33 cookies for me. Please stay tuned for my other variation of this cookie, the hard and crunchy type, which I called my dark beauty!

Ingredients:

• 1 stick of butter (113g), cut into 8 cubes (8 Tbsp.)

(A)

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup powder sugar
• 1/2 tsp. salt

(B)

• 1/2 tsp. pure peppermint extract
• 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 egg

(C)

• 1/4 cup crushed candy canes

Method:

1. In a food processor/stand mixer, add (A). Pulse to mix.

2. Add (B) and cut butter cubes. Pulse until a dough is almost formed.

3. Take a piece of plastic wrap, pour dough on it and knead a couple of times until a dough is formed. Then, roll the dough into a long log shape. Wrap and put in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 375'F. Unroll the plastic wrap and cut the cookie dough with a knife, about 3mm thick and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet and sprinkle the top with crushed candy cane. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

5. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to cool completely on a wire rack. Store in air-tight container.

I am also submitting my recipe to the Original Recipe event hosted by Lore at Culinarty. Check out others' recipes around the week of 15th.