These Homemade Peppermint Brownie Cookies are genuinely the best festive holiday cookie. They are a thick and fudgy brownie in cookie form topped with peppermint pieces for holiday flavor and design. These are no chill, require simple ingredients, and come out perfectly every time!
Why You NEED These Brownie Cookies
- No-Chill Dough: Unlike many homemade brownie cookie recipes, this recipe does not require an hour in the fridge. You'll still get a chewy, thick, and fudgy cookie without time chilling!
- Brownie Texture: Have you ever had a moist, fudgy, and chewy brownie? Well, imagine that brownie in cookie form because that's what these are.
- Deep Chocolate Flavor: These have a bursting rich chocolate flavor from melted chocolate chips and unsweetened cocoa powder.
- 30 Minute Prep: These cookies require around 30 minutes of your time... tempting, right?
Fudgy Brownie Cookie Ingredients
- Dark Chocolate Chips: You will melt chocolate chips down in this recipe. To do this, you can heat them in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. However, you can also heat them in a microwave in a microwave-safe bowl in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly between each round.
- Unsalted Butter: Use unsalted butter at room temperature in this recipe. Read "Expert Tips & Tricks" below on how to bring butter to room temperature in a pinch!
- Light Brown Sugar & Granulated Sugar: Both light brown sugar and granulated sugar contribute to flavor, texture, and moisture in these brownie cookies. Therefore, do not substitute one for the other.
- Eggs: You'll need two large eggs at room temperature. If you forget to leave them out ahead of time, place them in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes before using them.
- Egg Yolk: Egg yolk adds extra moisture and chewiness, so do not skip it. It helps create that fudgy brownie texture!
- Vanilla Extract: Even though these are chocolate peppermint cookies, vanilla helps complete the flavor.
- Peppermint Extract: Peppermint extract brings out the classic holiday flavor, but use it carefully because it is powerful!
- All Purpose Flour: Simple, plain, white flour is the way to go in these babies. Measure the flour properly by using a kitchen scale or by using a spoon to carry the flour to your measuring cups before using a knife to level the tops.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: Cocoa powder brings out extra chocolate flavor!
- Salt: Salt is one of the most important ingredients in this recipe, as it enhances the sweetness.
- Baking Powder: Baking powder helps these cookies rise to be thick and puffy!
- Corn Starch: Corn starch helps to create a thicker, firmer cookie. Without it, you'll risk having your cookies spread in the oven.
- Crushed Peppermint: You'll top these cookies with crushed peppermint for decoration! I put a candy cane in a zippable bag and used a fork to hammer it to pieces.... easy!
FAQ
Brownie cookies should be slightly underbaked for best results. This means that the centers of the cookies should look set and shiny but soft. The cookies should be cracked on top. They will continue to bake and firm up as they cool on the pan. Begin checking on the cookies around 9-10 minutes.
Do not use soft peppermints as decoration for these cookies. Use candy canes or those round star bright candies. Simply place them in a ziploc bag, close the bag, and use a fork or the back of a spoon to smash the peppermint into crushed pieces.
Decorating
There are so many different options for decorating these cookies, but here are the easiest two:
- Crushed Peppermint: At the 7 minute mark in the oven, remove the cookies from the oven or simply slide your oven rack out to allow you to easily access the cookies. Top the cookies with crushed peppermint and return to the oven to finish baking.
- Melted Chocolate + Crushed Peppermint: After the cookies have cooled, melt additional chocolate chips of choice in a saucepan over medium heat or in the microwave in 45 second increments. Transfer the melted chocolate to a piping bag, homemade parchment triangle, or zippable plastic bag that you will cut the corner off of to create a makeshift piping bag. Run your arm back and forth over a cooled cookie to drizzle the chocolate before topping the lines of melted chocolate with crushed peppermint. Repeat the process with remaining cookies.
Expert Tips & Tricks
Room Temperature Butter: This recipe relies on room temperature butter for structure and texture. The gooey, fudgy, and chewy texture of these cookies will be altered if you use cool butter, warm butter, or melted butter. PLEASE leave your butter out 1-2 hours ahead of time or cut your butter into 1-tablespoon sized pieces and microwave for 10 seconds. Then, flip the butter pieces over and microwave for another 10 seconds. Repeat the process in 5 second intervals until the butter is cool to the touch but slightly softer in structure.
Mixing: Once you see all of the dry ingredients disappear into the wet ingredients and have scraped down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula to ensure everything is mixed together, stop mixing. Overmixing the batter can impact how these cookies rise and bake, meaning you could end up with drier, denser, and flatter cookies.... yuck.
Let The Batter Sit: It's in the instructions, but I'm going to say it again: let the batter sit for 10 minutes before baking. This allows the batter to firm up, making it easier to roll. Not only is the dough easier to work with, but the cookie will be thicker and taller, as it will spread less having time to sit.
Related Recipes
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Fudgy Peppermint Brownie Cookies
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies 1x
- Category: Brownies, Cookies, Brownie Cookies, Chocolate Cookies
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (270g) dark chocolate chips
- ½ cup (110g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (240g) light brown sugar, packed
- ½ cup (105g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs (100g), room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 ¼ cup (175g) all purpose flour
- ⅓ cup (30g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon (4g) baking powder
- 1 tablespoon (9g) corn starch
- for decoration: crushed peppermint and ½ cup (90g) chocolate chips (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line baking sheets with parchment paper to ensure the cookies come off of the pan cleanly.
- Melt chocolate chips in a small saucepan over medium heat or by microwaving in a microwave safe bowl in 45 second increments. Stir constantly over the heat or thoroughly between each round in the microwave. Allow the mixture to cool slightly while preparing the rest of the batter.
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer or in the bowl of your stand mixer that is fitted with a paddle attachment, beat room temperature butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth and fluffy in texture. This should be about 3 minutes of mixing.
- Add eggs and egg yolk one at a time, mixing until combined. Add vanilla and peppermint extracts to the dough and mix until smooth. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure the ingredients are properly incorporated. Add melted chocolate to the batter, ensuring that the chocolate fully disperses throughout the batter.
- In a medium bowl, whisk all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and corn starch together.
- With your mixer on low speed, carefully add the dry ingredients to the wet batter. Do not overmix, but ensure that all of the flour mixer is fully incorporated.
- Allow the mix to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Roll the dough into 2-tablespoon (50-55g) balls. Place the dough about 3 inches apart from each other. Bake for 10-13 minutes or until the tops look slightly cracked, shiny, and just set. The cookies will continue to bake and firm up as they cool.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a plate or wire cooling rack to finish cooling.
- For the decoration, melt preferred chocolate chips in a saucepan over medium heat or in the microwave in 45 second intervals. Stir constantly or thoroughly between each round in the microwave to ensure you do not burn the chocolate. Transfer the chocolate to a zippable bag that you can cut the corner/tip off of, parchment triangle, or piping bag.
- Run the melted chocolate back and forth over each cookie, one at a time. Top the cookie with crushed peppermint and repeat the process with remaining cookies. If you run the chocolate over all of the cookies before topping them with peppermint, the chocolate will harden and the peppermint will not stick.
- Let the cookies sit before storing to allow the chocolate to harden.
Keywords: Brownie Cookies, Peppermint Cookies, Chocolate Peppermint, Christmas Cookies
Katie says
These cookies are so delicious!!! They are a new holiday favourite
Elise says
Thank you, Katie! I love these cookies for the holidays and am glad you feel the same way!
Jules says
A new Christmas-time dessert STAPLE! Obsessed with the crunch that the peppermint gives to the brownie-like texture. Yum!
★★★★★
Elise says
Yay! That makes me so happy to hear, Jules! Thank you for leaving such a sweet message!
Lexie says
Absolutely amazing cookies! Truly a perfect combination of a brownie taste and texture in the shape of a delicious peppermint cookie. This is a holiday must-bake for sure!!
★★★★★
Elise says
I'm SO glad to hear this, Lexie! Thank you so much for trying them!
Abby says
These cookies turned out so well! They baked perfectly and looked so pretty. My whole family loved them. The recipe was very straight forward and easy to follow. Definitely saving this recipe for future events and can’t wait to try out more recipes from Elise!
Elise says
Thank you, Abby! So glad to hear you enjoyed these!