These soft and thick chocolate peppermint thumbprints are a new favorite Christmas cookie. Combining chocolate cookies, chocolate peppermint ganache, and crushed candy canes, they’re undoubtedly festive and bound to disappear off cookie platters.
These are Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprints.
Tell me About Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprints
These chocolate peppermint thumbprint cookies channel my peppermint bark cookies and Andes mint chocolate cookies with the same irresistible chocolate and peppermint flavor combination. They’re also:
- Adorable 2 bite cookies
- Thick + mega festive
- Super soft in the centers
- Filled with chocolate peppermint ganache
- Topped with crushed candy canes
We honestly COULD NOT STOP eating these. Besides the unbeatable texture and festive flavor, you’ll also appreciate that this Christmas cookie recipe comes together with basic kitchen ingredients like flour, cocoa powder, butter, and sugar. Love that.
How to Make Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprints
I developed the base of this recipe from my chocolate crinkle cookies. The recipes are different because I needed a slightly sturdier cookie to hold the ganache inside. A higher ratio of brown sugar to white sugar keeps the cookies extra soft and cocoa powder lends all the chocolate flavor in the dough. Remember the difference between dutch-process vs. natural cocoa powder? Use natural cocoa powder here.
Baker’s Tip: Chill the cookie dough AFTER rolling the dough balls in sugar and making indents. Why? Chilling cookie dough at this stage is the most important step. In my recipe testing, I found that chilling the dough before indenting made it a little too firm and difficult to work with. Chilling the dough after indenting was much easier.. Place the whole cookie sheet in your refrigerator for 2 hours or freezer for 1 hour.
Arrange the cold dough 2-3 inches apart on baking sheets, then bake.
My Indent Trick
This is my #1 trick for indenting thumbprints: Instead of using your thumb, use the end of a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. This way you don’t dirty your thumbs or get dough under your nail AND you obtain a perfect uniform indent in each cookie. Are you a control freak/neat freak like I am? Then you’ll totally appreciate this hack.
I do the same thing with my caramel apple spice thumbprints and lemon thumbprint cookies.
Of course, you can still use your thumb if that’s easiest for you.
Bake Without the Filling
Unlike most thumbprint cookies where you bake the cookies WITH the filling inside, you actually bake today’s thumbprints WITHOUT the ganache filling inside. (Baked ganache is not a good idea!) Since the indented cookies are empty, they’re going to puff up in the oven and lose some of that thumbprint indentation..
Here’s what you do: When the cookies come out of the oven, grab the wooden spoon or rubber spatula again and press the center of the warm cookies down to make a deeper indent. You’re just reshaping the thumbprints here—very easy. Deeper indent = bigger pool of ganache..
Chocolate Peppermint Ganache
Do you remember when I taught you how to make chocolate ganache? We’re doing the same exact thing here! Chocolate ganache requires two ingredients:
Chop chocolate into tiny pieces. Use chocolate labeled “baking chocolate” that’s sold as 4 ounce bars in the baking aisle right next to the chocolate chips. I prefer Ghirardelli or Bakers brands. TIP: The best tool for chopping hard chocolate is a large serrated knife. Pour warm cream over the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for a few minutes, then stir until thick and smooth. To make this ganache extra special, add a drop of peppermint extract. Start with only 1/8 teaspoon, then taste it. If you want more, add more. Peppermint extract is VERY potent and if you add too much, your ganache will taste like toothpaste.
The chocolate ganache will eventually set, making these chocolate peppermint thumbprints easy for packing, gifting, and traveling. It’s still creamy when you take that first bite, though—perfectly messy just like all the best Christmas cookies are. 🙂
If you can’t get enough peppermint cookies try these candy cane kiss cookies, peppermint snowball cookies, or peppermint mocha cookies next.
Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprints Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, add the milk, and mix on low until combined. The cookie dough will be thick.
- Roll balls of dough, a little less than 1 Tablespoon each (about 1 inch balls), and roll each into remaining 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar. Place dough balls onto a large lined baking sheet. Using your thumb or the end of a spatula (see post above), make an indent into each cookie. If you find that the balls are cracking when you make an indent, use your hands to push back together.. No worries there!)
- Chill the shaped cookies for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator or 1 hour in the freezer (or up to 4 days in the refrigerator). Cover them if chilling for longer than 3 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Remove chilled and shaped cookies from the refrigerator. Divide between both baking sheets, spacing the cookies about 2-3 inches apart. This recipe yields about 30 cookies, so you’ll have a 3rd batch with only a few cookies on the sheet.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the edges are set. The cookies will still look and feel a little soft. Remove from the oven. The indents will have lost some shape or have puffed up, so use the end of a spatula to make an indent again into the warm cookies.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before filling with ganache.
- Place chocolate into a heat-proof bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it begins to gently simmer. (Do not let it come to a rapid boil—that’s too hot!) Pour over chocolate and let it sit for 2-3 minutes to gently soften the chocolate. Slowly stir until completely combined and chocolate has melted. Stir in the peppermint extract. Taste and add another drop if desired. (It’s potent so don’t go overboard!) Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before spooning into cookies.
- Spoon 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of ganache into each indentation. I fit about 3/4 teaspoon into each. Sprinkle ganache with crushed candy canes. Ganache will thicken inside the cookies and set on the tops after a few hours, but will still be creamy when you bite into the cookies.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
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