Chocolate Crinkles + Peppermint Bark

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A close up of chocolate peppermint cookies
Chocolate Crinkles + Peppermint Bark
β€˜tis the season

I love to throw peppermint bark in everything around the holidays. And I love chocolate. So everything happening on this page makes perfect, logical sense. I do love Martha’s crinkles…and I love the new Cook’s Illustrated recipe. But I wanted to kick it up a notch. Could we throw in more chocolate? Could we throw in more bark? What about some espresso in there? More salt? Hell yeah. Let’s get really jacked up, is what I’m thinking.

A couple tips on making these little chocolate clouds… This dough is tar-like. I’ll use that expression again later…it’s so fitting. So when it’s sticking to your hands, don’t panic. Make sure you refrigerate the dough before rolling and putting them in the sugar. Also don’t try to make them into perfect balls before you dip them in the granulated sugar…you’ll futz with the dough too much. Put them in the sugar as dough globs and gently shape into balls with the help of the granulated sugar. Let’s just say it again for good measure: balls. This is a good month for balls. We have jingle balls, right? Ornament balls? Cheese balls. And dough balls… Any others you’d like to share with the class? Bueller? OK, I think we’re ready. Let’s do this.

{ chocolate crinkles + peppermint bark }
Chocolate Crinkles + Peppermint Bark

Makes 4 Dozen

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 ounces unsalted butter (one stick)
  • 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  • 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon freshly brewed espresso or coffee
  • 1 cup brown sugar, packed
  • Β½ cup granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 Β½ teaspoons real vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark)
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • Β½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 cups chopped peppermint bark
  • Plus both granulated and powdered sugar to coat (about ΒΎ cup of each)

 INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Put the butter, bittersweet chocolate and unsweetened chocolate in a large, microwave-safe bowl and melt in the microwave. It took 53 seconds in my microwave. Make sure the chocolate is chopped up so that it melts evenly. Take out of the microwave and stir. If it’s not completely melted, do 10-30 more seconds. Stir again until smooth and the mixture has no lumps. Your microwave may need 10 more seconds or 10 less…error on the side of less and then add more time so that you don’t burn your chocolate.
  2. Add the coffee, brown sugar, granulated sugar, three eggs and vanilla extract to the chocolate-butter mixture and blend. Set aside to cool.
  3. Whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and sea salt in a medium bowl.
  4. Add the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture. Mix this a bit, being careful not to over mix.
  5. Add the chopped up peppermint bark and fold into the batter in as few strokes as possible. Don’t over mix. Did I say mention that?
  6. Refrigerate the dough for 15-30 minutes. Like I mentioned earlier, the dough will be sticky and tar-like…refrigerating will help this. Regardless, your hands will get a bit messy. So let’s get psyched about this.
  7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and place a rack in the top third of your oven. Line your baking sheets with parchment or silpats.
  8. Get about two tablespoons of dough and plop it into the granulated sugar. Gently encourage the dough into a ball-like shape and cover completely with the granulated sugar. Don’t shake any sugar off…leave it pretty well coated.Then roll the balls in the powdered sugar. Again, don’t shake off the excess. Make sure all the dough is covered well in both sugars.
  9. The balls won’t spread a ton while cooking…you can put twelve balls of dough on each standard cookie sheet. Place a Silpat or parchment paper on your cookie sheet and then place the balls on top. Balls. We’re going to have a quiz at the end on how many times the word β€˜balls’ was used in this recipe. Pay attention.
  10. Bake for about 13 minutes. Don’t over bake…they will be soft (not jiggle-y) when you pull them out of the oven.
  11. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 15 minutes. Then remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and place on a cooling rack. You can take it from here. Try these with coffee (in the morning) or some red wine (at noon) or some whiskey (at night). Buh bye.

A couple of thoughts:

  • I once made this recipe with semi-sweet chocolate in place of the bittersweet chocolate. It worked fine. I’m telling you this because sometimes you just don’t want to go to the store. So, it will work. Just be forewarned, the cookies will be sweeter using the semi-sweet.
  • This recipe was fine-tuned and honed so that it could participate in the Fourth Annual Food Blogger Cookie Swap…not only did I love giving and receiving cookies (YEAH), but I loved that we were helping the charity Cookies for Kid’s Cancer. Check it out and see if there’s anything you can do to help.
  • I will add a link that lists all of the Cookie Swap cookie recipes. As soon as I get itβ€”I believe that will be on Tuesday morningβ€”I will put the link here.
  • My Christmas tree still isn’t decorated. An actual growing-in-the-ground tree fell on my roof in last week’s storm. My iPhone and dishwasher broke last week. As I’m typing this I’m thinking I should be in a really bad mood. Somehow, I still feel in the spirit. It smells like teen spirit…but it’s still spirit.
  • I’m ordering everyone to do something really nice for someone today. And to shirk a responsibility. It’ll feel good. Just do it. Nothing feels better than a good shirk.

P.S. It’s hard to find my newsletter sign in. See the three horizontal lines in the upper right-corner? Click on that and you’ll find it in there. I’d love to make it into your inbox weekly. Happy eating!


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Comments

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Rebecca xox

8 Comments

  • Kellyn January 20, 2015 at 9:04 PM

    Received these as a gift from the blogger’s daughter– Um, can I say AMAZING!? I gave/threw away many of the cookies I received for as holiday treats because I’m trying to cut out sugar and don’t want to be 300lbs, but after one bite ended up eating the bag in one sitting (what sugar?). Seriously, some of the best cookies I’ve ever tasted. They are like minty, chocolatey, brownie bites. Delicious!

    Reply
    • DisplacedHousewife January 20, 2015 at 10:49 PM

      Thanks Kellyn!! I’m so glad you like them…they are some of my favorites. So sad they only work once a year at Christmas…maybe I need to come up with an Easter version!?! xo

      Reply
  • Uncle Mike December 16, 2014 at 3:36 PM

    13……. 13 balls
    Do I win the quiz??

    Reply
    • DisplacedHousewife December 16, 2014 at 3:56 PM

      Count again!!! Is it scotch-thirty already?

      Reply
  • Sharon | Cheesy Pennies December 16, 2014 at 8:58 AM

    I was the lucky recipient of a dozen of these puppies. Feel like I hit the cookie swap jackpot! So making these this weekend!

    Reply
  • Ani (@afotogirl) December 16, 2014 at 7:49 AM

    Love these. These I would definitely have been happy to receive. ;)

    Reply
  • Sherri @ The Kitchen Prescription December 16, 2014 at 3:03 AM

    These are gorgeous! Out of the plethora of recipes online, I’m trying yours. I’ve always wanted to make these. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • DisplacedHousewife December 16, 2014 at 3:18 AM

      Thanks Sherri!! You’re so nice. I’m just looking at your website–it’s great!! Love all the talented and creative people out there. xo

      Reply