25 Days of Christmas in Cookies--Day 3 Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Cups

    Saturday. *whew* Who knew the weekend would be busier than the weekdays. haha I guess the closer Christmas gets the busier the weekends are going to get. That's the way it is. I find it fun, though. :)


    As another day of my 25 Days of Cookies, I needed to bake these cookies in between shopping, the library, cleaning, doing laundry, well, you get the point. :)


    Today's cookie was inspired by last year's cookie Double Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Cookies, from Sweet Pea's Kitchen--I really enjoy her blog, and a cookie I found on Foodbuzz.com this year, Double Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies from Love From the Oven. 



Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Cups
Yields 15 cups

• 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/3 cup olive oil 
• 1/4 cup dark corn syrup
• 2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup Nutella
• 3/4 tsp peppermint extract
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• white chocolate squares (I found mine at Trader Joe's), white chocolate chips, or Hershey kisses
• 4 candy canes

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pans with paper cups and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer, beat together the shortening and olive oil on medium speed until smooth.

Beat in the corn syrup and light brown syrup.

Slowly, and on slow speed, beat in the cocoa powder.

Still on a low speed, slowly beat in the flour mixture. After scraping the sides down and all of the flour has been incorporated, beat in the Nutella and the peppermint extract.

Stir in the mini chocolate chips.

Spoon the cookie dough into the prepared pans. Fill the cups till just below the tops.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes. Pull the pans out and top each cup with a white chocolate square or topping of choice. Turn the oven off and place the pans back into the oven for an additional 3 minutes.

Remove the pans from the oven and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, place some candy canes in a ziplock baggie and proceed to crush. :) I've heard that rolling pins are ideal for this task but, as I don't have a rolling pin, I used my small saute pan. 


I sifted the big pieces from the candy cane "dust" and then dusted the tops of the cookie cups. Then I pressed a few of the bigger chunks into the melted chocolate and let them finish cooling.

These were good straight from the pan, but I bet they would be super scrumptious in a bowl with a big ole scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top! Mmmmmm Enjoy!