Ghirardelli Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cookies

These Ghirardelli Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cookies make one festive holiday dessert, featuring Ghirardelli peppermint bark and hot cocoa mix.

'Tis the season for cookies! And since we are all baker extraordinaires after months and months of quarantine, these Ghirardelli Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cookies make a delicious and festive holiday treat.

Hot chocolate is quite the 'hot' ticket item this holiday season. Have you seen those totes adorbs hot chocolate "charcuterie" boards? Or the super fun hot cocoa bombs?

Inspired by those fun ideas and my love for Ghirardelli chocolate, these cookies are a twist on the classic Nestle Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. A few simple, festive tweaks make these cookies an approachable dessert, even for non-bakers like me. Namely the addition of Ghirardelli Peppermint Hot Cocoa Mix and Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark.

How do you make Ghirardelli Peppermint Hot Chocolate Cookies?

To make these delicious, chocolatey, peppermint-punctuated cookies you will need the following ingredients.

INGREDIENTS  

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup shortening (Crisco)*
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 1 pouch Ghirardelli peppermint hot chocolate mix (This is approximately ¼ cup)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 3.5 ounce Ghirardelli peppermint bark bars**

INSTRUCTIONS 

1. Add ½ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup light brown sugar, and 1 cup shortening to a mixing bowl.
2. Cream sugar and shortening together with a hand mixer until well combined, approximately 2 minutes.
3. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 large egg. Mix until combined.
4. Add the second large egg and mix until combined.
5. Combine 2 cups flour, 1 package of Ghirardelli peppermint hot cocoa mix, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1 teaspoon of baking powder in a separate bowl. Stir.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl methodically. I add the dry ingredients in four equal-ish additions. After each addition, mix until just combined with a hand mixer. Repeat until the dry ingredients are completely mixed in.
7. Chop up those Ghirardelli peppermint bark bars, roughly. Try to keep eating bits and pieces of it to a minimum.
8. Add the chopped Ghirardelli peppermint bark to the mixing bowl, and mix by hand with a spoon until just combined.
9. Cover with plastic wrap, pushing the plastic wrap down tightly to the cookie batter to keep the air out.
10. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
11. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
12. Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator.
13. Using a cookie scoop, scoop 12 cookies onto a baking sheet, leaving a generous amount of space between each (or however many will fit; I was able to fit 12 at a time on a large aluminum baking sheet).
14. Bake for 13-14 minutes.
15. Remove the cookies from oven and let sit on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes. Remove each cookie with a spatula and let cool on a cooling rack.
16. Repeat until you've used up all of the dough. Makes 40 delicious and festive AF cookies.

Notes

*You can use butter instead, but I've only made this recipe with Crisco. 

**You can use plain peppermint bark, dark chocolate peppermint bark, or a mix of both 🙂 

I used the following Ghirardelli goodies for these cookies, found conveniently on Amazon.

The resulting cookies are delightfully crisp, just begging to be paired with a cold glass of milk. Each bite has a lovely peppermint hot chocolate flavor that's beautifully balanced.

I prefer to chill my dough before baking and recommend you do the same. I find the cookies spread less and turn out more uniform. A cookie scoop is also a must for these uniformly delicious cookies.

Happy holidays and happy baking! Here's how you make 'em.

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