What's more festive than chocolate peppermint kiss cookies at Christmas? These are so easy to make, so festive, and your family will love them!
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If you love peppermint mocha flavoured desserts during the holidays, you'll have to try these chocolate dipped shortbread cookies with crushed candy cane too!
I have so much fun making these cookies every year! They're so festive inside and out! The candy cane Hershey's Kiss brings all the Christmas feels, and the peppermint mocha flavour is a must for the holidays! I hope you add these if you make a holiday treat tray like me every Christmas!
If you're looking for more Christmas treats to make this year, try these chocolate crinkle cookies, gingerbread crinkle cookies, fudgy crinkle brownie cookies, best christmas crack recipe, soft cream cheese frosted gingerbread cookies, shortbread pecan bars, shortbread cookies recipe, and thumbprint cookies with jam recipe too!
All you need is some basic cookie ingredients to make this recipe. Like other Cup of Flour recipes, this recipe uses ingredients you probably already have in your pantry or can easily access at any grocery store (especially during the holidays for those Hershey Kisses!) To learn more about how Cup of Flour helps create approachable recipes for people, check out the About page!
Why you'll love this recipe
- EASY: These cookies are super easy to make with just a few ingredients.
- FESTIVE: You will undoubtedly have the most festive Christmas cookies at your cookie exchange!
- DELICIOUS: These cookies are rich in chocolate, just like these fudgy brownie cookies, and candy cane hot chocolate is the delicious flavour you get in every bite from the candy cane kisses!
Ingredients
- FLOUR: This recipe uses all-purpose flour. You will need 1 and ¼ cups.
- BAKING SODA: Baking soda is going to help these cookies rise. Use 1 teaspoon.
- COCOA POWDER: For all the chocolaty goodness. Use ½ a cup of natural, unsweetened cocoa powder.
- SALT: Just a dash to elevate the delicious flavour of these cookies. You need ¼ teaspoon.
- BUTTER: Unsalted or salted butter will do. I always opt for salted, and add the extra salt anyways. We all know salt makes everything taste just a tad better. But if you use salted butter, feel free to omit the extra salt. Use ½ a cup of softened butter.
- SUGAR: To sweeten up these cookies (and that unsweetened cocoa powder!). Use ½ a cup each of granulated sugar and brown sugar.
- EGG: The egg will help give your cookies the structure they need. Just 1 egg is needed for this recipe.
- VANILLA EXTRACT: Just a hint of vanilla adds so much to desserts. Use just 1 teaspoon.
- HERSHEY’S CANDY CANE KISSES: The Hershey Kisses will be topped on each cookie and also chopped up and folded into the chocolaty cookie dough for some extra candy cane flavour. This recipe makes 26 cookies so you will need 26 Hershey Kisses, plus a few more for the dough, I used 8.
Equipment
- BAKING SHEET: You will need at least 1 baking sheet for baking the cookies. It will be even more helpful if you have 2 so you can start prepping batches of cookies while another batch of cookies bakes in the oven.
- MIXER: For combining the ingredients/cookie dough. It will be easiest to use an electric mixer because the cookie dough is quite thick in this recipe.
- KNIFE: A knife is needed for chopping up the Hershey Kisses.
- CUTTING BOARD: A cutting board is recommended to use while chopping the Hershey Kisses. Nobody wants to ruin their counters!
- MIXING BOWLS: You will need 2 medium-sized mixing bowls to combine the ingredients.
- SMALL BOWL: A small bowl will be needed for the sugar you will roll your cookie dough balls in before placing on the baking sheet.
- MEASURING SPOONS AND CUPS: For measuring the ingredients.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F or 177° C.
- Line 1 or 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.
- Unwrap the Hershey Kisses and roughly chop 8 of them. Set aside away from the oven to avoid melting.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a medium-sized bowl.
- Cream the butter, granulated, and brown sugar in a separate medium-sized bowl. Add the egg and vanilla extract.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients until fully combined and the texture is thick. Fold in the chopped Hershey Kisses.
- Roll the cookie dough into 1 tablespoon-sized ball, roll in the granulated sugar, and place them on a baking sheet at least 1.5 inches apart.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes.
- Once removed from the oven, allow the cookies to sit for 1 minute before pressing a Hershey Kiss on top of the cookie.
- Move to a cookie rack to completely cool.
Recipe tips
- Use softened butter. For this recipe, you need to cream together the butter and sugars for the cookie dough batter, and the only way to do this is if your butter is at room temperature. If it's too cold or if its melts, you won’t be able to cream it. If you forgot to pull your butter out, no worries! Just microwave it for 10-15 seconds until it becomes slightly soft.
- Wait 1 minute before adding the Hershey Kiss on the cookie. This 1 minute is SO important because if you place the Hershey Kiss on the cookie too soon it will completely melt into a sad blob (I know from experience…) and if you place it too late it won’t stick!
- Move your cookies to a cooling rack. Try to do this a couple of minutes after placing your Hershey Kiss, this will also help keep the chocolate from melting into a blob.
- Don’t roll all the cookies in sugar. This is a preference thing! Some people aren’t as fond of extra sugar on the outside, so I always roll half in sugar and the other half I leave plain and both versions taste amazing!
FAQs
Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 3 months.
📖 Recipe
Chocolate Peppermint Kiss Cookies
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 26
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
These chocolate peppermint kiss cookies are full of that classic peppermint mocha flavour everyone loves having during the holidays.
Ingredients
- Flour (1 & ¼ Cups)
- Baking Soda (1 Teaspoon)
- Cocoa Powder (½ Cup)
- Salt (¼ Teaspoon)
- Butter, at Room Temperature (½ Cup)
- Brown Sugar (½ Cup)
- Granulated Sugar (½ Cup)
- Egg (1)
- Vanilla (1 Teaspoon)
- Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses (26 For Topping Cookies, 8 Roughly Chopped)
- Extra Granulated Sugar, For Rolling Cookies (3 Tablespoons)
Instructions
- Prepare: Preheat oven to 350° F or 177° C. Line 1 or 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. Unwrap the Hershey Kisses and roughly chop 8 of them. Set aside away from the oven to avoid melting.
- Mix: In a medium-sized bowl, combine and mix the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Cream the butter, granulated, and brown sugar in a separate medium-sized bowl and then add the egg and vanilla extract.
- Combine: Slowly add the dry ingredients to the bowl of wet ingredients until fully combined and the texture is thick. Fold in the chopped Hershey Kisses.
- Shape the cookies: Roll the cookie dough into 1 tablespoon-sized balls, roll in the granulated sugar, and place them on a baking sheet at least 1.5 inches apart.
- Bake: Bake for 7-9 minutes. Once removed from the oven, allow the cookies to sit for 1 minute before pressing a Hershey Kiss on top of the cookie.
- Cool: Move to a cookie rack to completely cool.
Notes
Scroll up to the full blog post for FAQ and Tips.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Category: dessert, cookies, holiday
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: american
Susan says
Made these tonight! The directions were so easy to follow. I replaced the peppermint kisses with cookies and cream as my son can't eat mint and they were absolutely delicious! Highly recommend trying these. Both rolled in sugar and without. So good!
Andrea says
I'm so glad you found these easy to make and I love your idea to try them with cookies and cream kisses! They must have been delish and i'll have to try for myself too!