It’s the final day of cookie week for 2023! I love shortbread as a Christmas cookie because it’s so classic and perfect with an afternoon cup of tea. Shortbread isn’t overly sweet, but paired with the chocolate and peppermint it has the perfect texture and subtle sweetness. This chocolate peppermint shortbread can be baked in a square pan and cut into rectangle cookies as shown here, in a round pan and cut like a cake or pie, or refrigerated in long rolls and made as a slice-and-bake cookie.
How to Make Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread
- Since these are shortbread cookies, we are using a full cup of butter! Cream this together with your sugar, then add your vanilla and peppermint extracts. Shortbread cookies live up to their name of being “short” and have no eggs, baking soda, or baking powder to provide any lift to the cookies. This gives you a dense, buttery cookie.
- Next, add the flour and just a little salt. Mix the dough very well as you want all the flour to be in contact with the butter. The dough will be a little crumbly, but it will hold its shape, especially after chill time.
- Finally, add the crushed candy canes and chopped chocolate. I find that regular chocolate chips are too large for these shortbread cookies and prefer to use a chopped chocolate bar. If you do need a shortcut, use mini chocolate chips.
- Now the dough needs to chill for at least 8 hours. I usually chill it overnight. You can chill the dough in a few different ways depending on the size of cookies that you want. You can chill it in an 8 x 8 square pan and cut the cookies into squares or rectangles after baking. You can roll the dough into logs and refrigerate it like that. Then for baking, you slice and bake them as round cookies.
- After you’ve baked the cookies, you can dip them in melted chocolate and add crushed candy canes for an extra festive touch!
No matter what shape you make your cookies, I promise they’re going to be delicious. These are one of my favorites from cookie week this year and one of my favorites of all time because I just love a shortbread cookie! They look beautiful in a cookie box and as long as you have enough time for them to chill before baking, they really are an easy cookie to make with relatively few ingredients.
- 1 cup butter, softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp. peppermint extract
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup crushed candy canes + more for topping
- ⅓ cup chopped chocolate or mini chocolate chips
- 1 cup regular chocolate chips
- Using a stand mixer or a large bowl and a hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Add the vanilla extract, peppermint extract, and salt.
- Add the flour and mix well to combine. For the cookies to hold their shape, you need every bit of flour to come into contact with the butter.
- Add the candy canes and chopped chocolate and mix well to combine.
- You have two ways you can make the cookies. You can spray an 8 x 8 baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment paper for rectangular or square cookies, or you can roll the dough into a log and wrap tightly in plastic wrap for circle cookies. Either way they will be delicious! If you are newer to making shortbread, I recommend the circle cookie method. Pack your dough tightly in your preferred shape, and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Slice your circle cookies or remove the dough from the baking pan and cut into squares or rectangles. Place on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 12-14 minutes. The shortbread cookies will spread a little bit. Use a metal cookie cutter for circle cookies or a metal spatula for the squares/rectangles. You can "scoot" your dough to the desired shape while it's still warm.
- When the cookies are completely cool, melt the chocolate chips and dip the cookies in. Sprinkle with candy canes and let sit until the chocolate has hardened.
- Enjoy!
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