Thanks to the help of a muffin tin, these peppermint-spiked sugar cookies are perfectly round every single time. They’re also easy enough for everyone in the family to pitch in to help. Frozen peppermint patties are stuffed in the middle to ramp up the flavor and provide a hidden surprise with the first bite. No need to decorate after baking — the sprinkles go right on top before going into the oven so that once they are cool, they are ready to go.
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 2 hr 20 min |
| Active: | 45 min |
| Yield: | 12 cookies |
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (see Cook’s Note)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- Red gel food coloring
- 12 peppermint patties, frozen
- 1/4 cup red and white sprinkles
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Beat the sugar and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer, or in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and peppermint extracts and the egg. Turn the mixer to low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until completely incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Remove half of the dough and set aside. Add 5 to 6 drops of the red food coloring to the remaining dough in the mixer bowl and mix on low speed until completely incorporated.
- Alternating between the red and white doughs, spoon 8 heaping 1/4 teaspoon-sized pieces of dough (4 red and 4 white) into the bottom of each of the 12 cups of a standard muffin tin. Press to flatten the dough so the red and white pieces intermingle and form a slight tie-dye look. Place 1 frozen peppermint patty on top of and in the middle of each dough round, pressing very gently into the dough but making sure it does not break through and touch the bottom of the pan. Spoon 8 more heaping 1/4 teaspoon-sized pieces of dough (4 red and 4 white), alternating the colors, on top of each peppermint patty and press to flatten and completely cover the peppermint patties.
- Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the red and white sprinkles on top of the dough in each muffin cup to completely cover it. Refrigerate until the dough is firm, about 1 hour (or freeze until firm, about 20 minutes).
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake until the edges are just starting to turn golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then use an offset spatula to remove the cookies from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 12 servings |
| Calories | 268 |
| Total Fat | 12 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Carbohydrates | 37 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 17 g |
| Protein | 3 g |
| Cholesterol | 46 mg |
| Sodium | 64 mg |
Reviews
Contrary to other ratings, this is a good cookie. It’s almost like a soft shortbread. It does need more peppermint. Next time I’ll try them in a mini muffin tin with junior mints. They are rather large.
Not a great cookie. Visually festive for the holidays, probably looks nice on social media posts. Flavor is mediocre. Below average when warm from oven and dreadful when cooled. Skip this one. WAY better recipes in the world for a holiday themed cookie. Food Network, at least require some flavor if you’re going to back a recipe. Easy to follow recipe but not worth the time and energy.
Too much cookie for the amount of pattie. Cookie was a little bit dry. May make again but without muffin tins just form dough around the candy.
Did not care for these at all and I am a peppermint pattie fanatic. Peppermint cookie was bland. Made them two ways — in a regular size muffin tin and cut patties in half and used a mini muffin tin. Neither were good.
Gross
Awesome. Great for kids!
I love the taste of these and the video was great for knowing how to build. Modified to a small muffin pan and made 24 mini cookies with mini peppermint patties. Also changed to red and green, instead of white and red because I could not find red and white sprinkles. Really pretty with red and green and sprinkles to match. ❣️
These taste good and are fairly easy to make, but make sure your muffin tin is “normal” sized and not jumbo or you won’t get the results you want.
I have celiac disease, and usually, cookies like this are off limits to me. They were so pretty, though, so I experimented with the recipe to see if I could make them gluten free. And it worked! For others out there who have to eat a gluten-free diet, this recipe will work if you substitute the all-purpose flour with 1 3/4 cups of 1 to 1 or measure for measure gluten-free flour, and for the remainder of the flour, use 3/4 cups of almond flour (helps with moisture content). Add 1 1/4 tsp extra xantham gum, increase the baking powder to a scant 1/2 teaspoon, and substitute 2 Tbsp of the butter with shortening. As with all gluten-free baking conversions, you will have to increase the baking time a little (for this recipe, I cooked it for 2 additional minutes), and it helps if you let these cookies cool a little longer in the pan before you attempt to remove them. This is a fantastic cookie recipe, and I am so happy that I don’t have to shy away from it anymore! I’m a happy girl!!
Took me a couple of tries to figure out how to put the dough in to make the swirl but oh my! These are delicious and so pretty.