Peppermint Snowballs
I tweaked a recipe from Sandra Lee's addition to Food Network's 12 Days of Cookies and came up with something delicious. The original recipe* got terrible reviews, with good reason, but the idea of peppermint sugar cookies really appealed to me so I played with it a bit and came up with this. My mom & I made up plates of several kinds of cookies for friends and neighbors this year, and these were a hit.
Peppermint Snowballs
(makes 36 cookies)
One bag of sugar cookie mix (I used Betty Crocker's.)
One stick of butter or margarine
One egg
3 tablespoons of flour
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/3 cup crushed peppermint candy (I used Bob's mint sticks.)
1 cup powdered sugar, to roll cookies in
Mix everything but the powdered sugar together in a medium sized bowl, then cover and chill for an hour or so. Drop balls of dough on cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
Once they're out of the oven and have cooled for a few minutes, roll them around in the powdered sugar (I noticed it sticks better if the cookies are still a little bit warm), let cool and enjoy!
Sidenote: The finer the peppermint candy is crushed the less likely it is to melt out and stick to the pan. I put it in a bag, beat the crap out of it with a rolling pin, and tried to make it pretty fine and keep any larger chunks of candy on the top of the cookie dough balls.
I have a feeling these would also be fantastic with white or dark chocolate drizzled over the top in place of the powdered sugar, and plan to try that as soon as possible.
*Sandra Lee's original recipe.
Peppermint Snowballs
(makes 36 cookies)
One bag of sugar cookie mix (I used Betty Crocker's.)
One stick of butter or margarine
One egg
3 tablespoons of flour
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/3 cup crushed peppermint candy (I used Bob's mint sticks.)
1 cup powdered sugar, to roll cookies in
Mix everything but the powdered sugar together in a medium sized bowl, then cover and chill for an hour or so. Drop balls of dough on cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.
Once they're out of the oven and have cooled for a few minutes, roll them around in the powdered sugar (I noticed it sticks better if the cookies are still a little bit warm), let cool and enjoy!
Sidenote: The finer the peppermint candy is crushed the less likely it is to melt out and stick to the pan. I put it in a bag, beat the crap out of it with a rolling pin, and tried to make it pretty fine and keep any larger chunks of candy on the top of the cookie dough balls.
I have a feeling these would also be fantastic with white or dark chocolate drizzled over the top in place of the powdered sugar, and plan to try that as soon as possible.
*Sandra Lee's original recipe.