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Christmas

White Chocolate Peppermint Cookie with Vanilla Salt

by:
November 24, 2014
5
3 Ratings
  • Makes 18 to 24
Author Notes

I recommend that you refrigerate the dough overnight even though it's a huge test of patience. Once made, I roll the dough in a 2-inch wide log, wrap it in parchment, then refrigerate until I'm ready to slice, salt, and bake. —Ashley Rodriguez

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Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
  • 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
  • 1 egg, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips
  • 2 tablespoons crushed peppermint candies (or candy canes)
Directions
  1. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer on medium speed, until light in color and texture, 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well to combine. Again, stop the machine and scrape down the bowl with a spatula.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt to combine.
  3. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture. Mix until streaks of flour still run throughout. Add the chocolate and peppermint candies then mix until everything just comes together. Finish the dough by hand, taking care to scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is evenly distributed.
  4. At this point, it is best to refrigerate the dough for 24 hours. Resting the dough intensifies the deep toffee flavors, and the texture of the baked cookie improves.
  5. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 360° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop the dough onto the baking sheets. Top the cookies with a pinch of vanilla salt just before baking.
  6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Rotate the sheets halfway through if the cookies appear to be baking unevenly. The cookies should be lightly golden on the outside but still look quite gooey on the inside. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for at least 5 minutes.
  7. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.
  8. These are best eaten the day of baking but will keep, if well sealed, for up to 2 days.
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Author of Date Night In (2015) and creator of the blog, Not Without Salt.

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29 Reviews

Write a Review
Janine_hanson@icloud.com November 11, 2023
Wonderful holiday cookie! I added a mix of bittersweet and white chocolate. Cooking at 350 for 10 minutes turning pan halfway through and cooling on sheet for 3 min resulted in a much better cookie.
christina December 1, 2019
I absolutely love this recipe! Everyone is always a fan and wants the recipe. I also add 1/2 cup of mini marshmallows to my mix. I don’t roll them into a lot either. I leave the dough in the bowl, cover, and refrigerate. Then I use a scooper to make them even in size and bake. Yes the dough can be hard but they bake just fine. This is a go to recipe for me now!
Julie K. December 24, 2017
For once I followed a recipe to the letter down to the 24 hours in the fridge, turbinado sugar and Jacobsen's vanilla salt. I would rate them just ok and not a make again. Neither the flavour combo or the texture did much for me. I wonder if more salt in the dough would help as it's hard to gauge how much to put on top and those large flakes are actually unpleasant if you get too much in one bite.
Andrew S. December 21, 2017
Can I substitute semi-sweet chocolate chips for the white chocolate?
Rose December 10, 2017
Is the small amt of turbinado sugar really necessary?? Also could someone share ration of vanilla bean to salt ?
Rose December 10, 2017
Is the small amt of turbinado sugar really necessary since dark brown sugar is used? Also, could someone share ratio of vanila bean to salt?
Courtney C. December 20, 2015
These were very good although next time I would add more white chocolate chips and peppermint pieces. Very good through, especially for the holidays.
Kendel S. November 23, 2015
I guess this recipe is from last holiday season, but I'm definitely glad I found it! It can be really hard to find a good cookie recipe online, but don't sleep on this one. These are really amazing cookies that were easy to tweak so they're practically foolproof.
1. I used a bar of white chocolate (1/2 cup) that I chopped into chunks instead of using (1 cup) morsels. Perfect chocolate to dough ratio.
2. Make sure you crush the candy cane pretty fine cos you don't want people chomping on hard pieces.
3. Instead of slicing the dough, I formed it into balls before chilling so I could pop them right into the oven from the fridge. Makes perfectly round cookies.
4. Baked at 350 degrees instead of 360 for 12 minutes exactly. They might not look done, but trust me, they are.
5. DON'T SKIP THE VANILLA SALT. I mean, you can...but I definitely think the vanilla salt makes it. Scrape one vanilla bean and combine with some high quality salt (sea salt, kosher salt, fleur de sel, etc.) You can get vanilla beans at Target.

This really is a great recipe. I'm especially impressed by the dough consistency. I'm entering these in my office's holiday bake-off. Hopefully I win!
Stefani P. December 23, 2014
Can I use light brown sugar instead of dark brown sugar? What will be the difference in taste?
Adrienne December 23, 2014
I think the dark brown is necessary to get the deep toffee flavor. But if you don't have it and use light it's not the end of the world, should still taste great. These cookies are awesome enjoy them!
Mallory December 22, 2014
Loved these! But I found the ratio of white chocolate chips to dough to be extremely high. If I remake these, I will probably only use 1/2 or 3/4 cup white chocolate chips. Did anyone else find this to be an issue?
Stacy December 24, 2014
Agree with you, Mallory. Too much chocolate chips I ended up actually halving it to 1/2 cup white chocolate chips and putting about 2 crushed candy canes. It was PERFECT.
Adrienne December 19, 2014
circles equals scoops. haha
Adrienne December 19, 2014
Isn't making vanilla salt simply grinding the bean than adding salt and grinding quickly again. Geez peeps. I made this cookie dough tonight and put it in the fridge and made two test cookies and they are THE best I've ever baked. I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow when I bake the rest. Will do in circles like everyone recommended.
shortnsweet December 18, 2014
Made these twice, once as drop cookies, once as slice and bake. definitely don't slice them! hard to get thin enough slices with all the chunks, and the dough is a little dry after being chilled.
Andra R. December 14, 2014
Keeper! I added toffee bits, used Andes peppermint chips, and split the cup of chips between white and dark. Chilled dough overnight and used a small cookie scoop.
DesireeDuym December 13, 2014
These came out amazing!
I did 'cheat' and baked with Andes White Chocolate Peppermint bits; saved me from smashing candy canes!
Also, just froze the dough for a few hours, sliced & baked
AmyMariko December 11, 2014
I found chilling the dough and rolling into balls not slicing the dough worked the best. Baked at 350 not 360.
Rachel,Thompson December 6, 2014
I can't remember where I saw it, but I think you can either buy vanilla salt or make it by combing sea salt with the innards of a vanilla bean.
Rachel,Thompson December 6, 2014
that would be "combining". :)
gaelc December 6, 2014
Yes, I finally looked it up...Grey Salt (moist) is best but you can use regular sea salt. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla pod and mix with the salt...can sit indefinitely in a jar. Sounds good to me!
Adriana December 5, 2014
These look amazing! Planning on making them tonight and was wondering if the cookie dough is sliced onto the sheet, or simply scooped into a ball?
Thank you!
Brenny December 5, 2014
I just made these cookies and have a few observations to share. The pieces of peppermint I used were very small, but still large enough to adhere to the parchment paper, which caused the first cookie I removed to split and break apart. Because of this, I used an off-set spatula to remove the remaining cookies from the baking sheets. ThIs solved the problem and the cookies are as beautiful as they are delicious. The next time I bake these cookies, I will make sure that I pulverize the peppermint. I did not use vanilla salt, nor did I top the cookies with salt. Perhaps the next batch.
Shortnsweet December 5, 2014
I didn't realize these had to be in the fridge for so long, will they work being in the fridge for 8 hours, or the freezer? Had planned on making them tomorrow morning for a holiday party in the evening