Bready or Not: Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks
Imagine chocolate chip-flecked shortbread sticks adorned with a thin sheen of frosting with dazzling gems of peppermint.
If you love peppermint and chocolate, these cookie sticks will bring you bliss. But do heed a rather important warning.
If the peppermint bits sit in the frosting for more than a day or so, they’ll actually melt. Seriously. It’s some kind of chemical reaction. Puddles of red goop everywhere.
But here’s the thing: the sticks still taste fine if that happens! They just look like they stared at the Arc of the Covenant.
So make a big ol’ jelly roll pan of these, and hold off on adding the peppermints adornments until soon before serving. Or put them on, and use it as a kind of science experiment.
A very delicious experiment. Did I mention these were like shortbread sticks loaded with chocolate chips and slathered with frosting? Oh yeah. These are good.
Modified from Crazy for Crust at Challenge Dairy.
Bready or Not: Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks
Ingredients
Cookie Sticks
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Frosting:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar sifted
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 - 4 Tablespoons milk or cream or half & half
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup candy canes crushed; or peppermints
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Line a jelly roll pan (10x15-inches) with foil and apply nonstick cooking spray all over the surface.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg and both extracts, followed by the baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Add flour until just incorporated, then the chocolate chips.
- Use your hands to press the dough evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until it's just starting to turn golden brown at the edges. Cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, cream butter until smooth. Slowly mix in powdered sugar until it starts to become crumbly, then add the salt and vanilla extract. Stir in 2 tablespoons of milk, then add more until it is spreadable consistency.
- Use the foil to lift the cookie slab onto a cutting board. Use an uneven spatula to frost the full surface. Let the frosting set for a short while. Slice cookies into sticks.
- DO NOT sprinkle crushed peppermints on until soon before serving--the candies will actually dissolve into the frosting after a day or so, which looks bad though they still taste fine.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks
Ingredients
Cookie Sticks
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Frosting:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar sifted
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 - 4 Tablespoons milk or cream or half & half
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup candy canes crushed; or peppermints
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Line a jelly roll pan (10x15-inches) with foil and apply nonstick cooking spray all over the surface.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in egg and both extracts, followed by the baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Add flour until just incorporated, then the chocolate chips.
- Use your hands to press the dough evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 15-18 minutes, until it's just starting to turn golden brown at the edges. Cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, cream butter until smooth. Slowly mix in powdered sugar until it starts to become crumbly, then add the salt and vanilla extract. Stir in 2 tablespoons of milk, then add more until it is spreadable consistency.
- Use the foil to lift the cookie slab onto a cutting board. Use an uneven spatula to frost the full surface. Let the frosting set for a short while. Slice cookies into sticks.
- DO NOT sprinkle crushed peppermints on until soon before serving--the candies will actually dissolve into the frosting after a day or so, which looks bad though they still taste fine.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you like some saltiness with your sweet, oh, do I have the cookies for you: Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies.
As you might imagine, my husband’s co-workers get to taste a wide variety of cookies from me. But these, several declared, ‘were the best cookies they’d ever placed in their mouths.’
I consider that pretty high praise.
What makes these cookies different is the combination of flavors and textures. The pretzels add a lot here–bits of crunchiness and saltiness that is lovely cuddled with chocolate and caramel.
You can use whatever candy bars you want in this. I used Hundred Grands, but you can go for anything with chocolate and caramel, like Twix. Or you can use more chocolate chips and caramel bits.
You could play with the chocolate, too, and use whatever kind you want: milk, semi, dark. Or use a combo.
Whatever combination you choose, I hope you’ll consider these among the best cookies you’ve put in your mouth, too.
Modified from Two Peas and Their Pod.
Bready or Not: Caramel Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup pretzels chopped
- 1 cup caramel-chocolate candy bars chopped, about 6 ounces
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 cubes, room temperature
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar packed
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- extra sea salt or pretzel salt to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Prepare your add-ins. Use a food processor (or chop by hand) the pretzels and candy bars. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Prepare a cookie sheet by greasing well or lining with parchment. (Remember, melted caramel can get sticky.)
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Gradually add in the dry ingredients. By hand, stir in the chocolate chips, pretzels, and candy bars.
- Use a tablespoon to dole out dough balls onto cookie sheet, taking care to space them out; try to tuck visible caramel inside the dough to prevent too much oozing. Sprinkle some salt on top of the cookies.
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Let cookies set on sheet for about 10 minutes before moving to a rack to finish cooling.
- Store cookies in a sealed container between layers of waxed paper or parchment. Keeps well for up to 5 days.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Bacon Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
As you might have noticed, I am gradually reposting all of my Holy Taco Church recipes here on Bready or Not. I knew I needed to move this cookie recipe forward in the queue when I was emailed by a woman who was dismayed the HTC website was gone and she needed this recipe again.
She described them as by far the best chocolate chip cookies she had ever made. There’s just something magical about the combination of bacon and chocolate. I’ve worked that alchemy in some other recipes like chocolate-covered bacon toffee (aka BACON CRACK).
Here, the combo plays well together in cookie form. The addition of the bacon fat infuses dough with savory flavor. It’s amazing that the single tablespoon of fat makes such a huge difference.
These are not cakey, soft cookies. They are crisp and chewy–more like the old Fanny Farmer recipe cookies my mom used to make me when I was a kid. Except with added bacon.
Try this out. Maybe you’ll join the club that thinks these are the chocolate chip cookies of all time!
Modified from the recipe at Something Swanky and originally posted at the Holy Taco Church.
Bready or Not: Bacon Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 Tb bacon fat solidified
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet
- 1/2 cup bacon cooked and chopped, about 4 thick strips
- additional sea salt for tops
Instructions
- Beat together the butter, bacon fat, brown sugar, and white sugar until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.
- Add the flour, salt, and baking soda to form the dough. Gradually mix in the chocolate chips and then the bacon.
- Chill the dough for a minimum or two hours, covered with plastic wrap, up to a few days.
- Preheat oven to 375-degrees. Use a teaspoon scoop to dole out dough onto a pan and sprinkle a little extra sea salt over the tops to add some savory oomph. Bake for 10-12 minutes; let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes, then transition to a rack.
- Recipe will make 55-60 teaspoon-size cookies.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Bready or Not: Custard/Pudding Powder Chocolate Chip Cookies
Happy Canada Day! Celebrate with some luscious chocolate chip cookies that have custard powder or pudding powder right in the dough.
See, I have a container of Bird’s Custard Powder sitting in my pantry that I want to use up. This stuff is great for Nanaimo Bars (a very appropriate recipe for Canada Day) but I wanted to use it for something less labor intensive.
Custard powder isn’t common in the States. It’s very much a Canadian/British thing. When I read up on Nanaimo Bar recipes ages ago, a lot of them said that regular Jell-O pudding powder could be used as a substitution for the custard layer. I got to thinking… I have made a number of cookie recipes that use pudding mix powder. Why not try it with custard powder instead?
I did. They turned out AMAZING. These pictures you see here were done without chilling the dough, which is what I usually do to create thicker cookies. It’s not necessary here, though the dough can still be chilled or frozen for later, if needed.
So, what does custard powder or pudding powder do?
– embodies cookies with a richer vanilla flavor
– makes thicker, more cakey result (like corn starch in the dough, but with the flavor oomph)
– seems to keep them fresh longer, too
Whatever your nationality, whatever your powder of choice, give these a try. Live deliciously.
Bready or Not: Custard/Pudding Powder Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, room temperature
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 6 Tablespoons custard powder or instant vanilla pudding powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 11 ounces chocolate chips or peanut butter chips or a mix, one bag
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and both sugars. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla extract.
- In another bowl, stir together the flour, custard powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly blend the dry ingredients with the butter mix. Add the chocolate chips.
- Use a tablespoon scoop to place dough onto a greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on sheet for 10-15 minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
- OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Breakfast Bites
I present to you a healthy, delicious breakfast option that just happens to taste like cookie dough. OH YEAH.
A while back I shared my recipe for Maple Energy Bites. Now it’s time to share the cookie dough version. It’s very simple. Throw ingredients in a high-powered blender. Form into bars or balls. Stash in the fridge. Eat.
You can use any kind of nut here, really, or a combination of nuts, but cashews will be the closest to cookie dough. They have that natural buttery taste. The dates add sweetness and also act as a binding agent. I add cinnamon, but you can sprinkle in whatever flavors you want and make it more like a spice cookie.
I usually eat two or three for breakfast. They are great before a work-out. They also will keep for upward of two weeks in a sealed container in the fridge.
Healthy cookie dough. This is totally a thing.
Bready or Not: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Breakfast Bites
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup dates chopped, medjool best
- 1 cup cashews
- big pinch cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 Tablespoons mini chocolate chips
- water if needed
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients but the chocolate chips and water. Pour 1/3 or 1/2 the mix into a high-powered food processor or blender. Pulse. Stir it with a spoon or spatula--it will be thick and gum up the machine. Pour the blended mix out, then add in more of the nut-date blend until everything is mostly blended. It's okay to have some chunks. Add the mini chocolate chips.
- Squeeze the mash between your fingers. If it doesn't want to stick together, stir in water by 1/2 teaspoon until it's cohesive.
- You can shape them in two ways. Use a tablespoon scoop to form a ball, then compress them with your hands to tighten. Or, make bars. Place a sling of parchment paper in a bread pan. Pour the mash in. Compress as tightly as you can. Remove using the sling and cut to preferred size.
- Keep stored in covered dish or closed baggie in fridge. Makes about 9 tablespoon-sized balls or 7 bars. Will keep for upward of 2 weeks.
OM NOM NOM!
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