Double Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies
The richest double chocolate peppermint bark cookies with crisp edges, fudgy centres and plenty of mint flavour. Forget shop bought, homemade is so much better!
Servings: 13 Cookies
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Mixing Bowl
- Large Round Cookie Cutter
- Baking Trays
Ingredients
Double Chocolate Cookies
- 200 g Unsalted Butter
- 40 g Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder (See Notes)
- 130 g Dark Brown Sugar
- 100 g Caster Sugar
- 50 g Golden Syrup
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¼ tsp Peppermint Extract
- 1 Large Egg
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 250 g Plain Flour
- 15 g Cornflour (Cornstarch)
- ¾ tsp Baking Powder
- ¾ tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- 100 g Peppermint Bark (See Notes)
- 100 g White Chocolate
- 80 g After Eight Chocolates
For On Top
- 90 g Chocolate (Dark, Milk, White Or A Mix)
- 220 g Peppermint Bark
- Sea Salt
Instructions
Double Chocolate Cookies
- Chop the butter into small pieces. Add 80 grams of the butter into a heatproof jug then microwave until just melted. Set the remaining 120 grams of butter to one side, to soften.
- Add the cocoa powder and melted butter into a bowl, whisk to combine then leave to cool to room temperature.This blooms the cocoa, adding extra flavour to the cookie dough! The mix should take around 15 minutes to cool.
- Next, add the softened butter, bloomed cocoa, both sugars, golden syrup, vanilla and peppermint extract into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix on a medium-low speed until just combined. This will only take 2-3 minutes. Make sure to scrape the bowl down as you mix, so that there's not streaks of butter.The mix may look a bit grainy at this point. Don't worry, it'll come together when you mix in the eggs and flour.
- Add the egg and yolks into a jug, lightly beat with a fork then slowly pour into the butter, with the mixer running on medium speed. Stop mixing once the eggs are just incorporated.
- Sift the flour, cornflour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a separate mixing bowl, add in the salt then whisk to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients into the cookie dough then mix on a low speed until just combined. A few dry streaks is fine at this point.
- Next, roughly chop the chocolate and After Eights and break the peppermint bark into small pieces. Add the mix ins into the cookie dough then fold in with a spatula.
- Chill the cookie dough in the fridge for 30 minutes – 1 hour, to let it firm up slightly. In the meantime, chop the chocolate (for on top) into 13 equally sized chunks.You won't need the extra peppermint bark until you bake the cookies.
Rolling & Topping
- Once the cookie dough has firmed up slightly, use a cookie scoop (or a spoon), to portion it into 13 equally sized portions. Each should weigh around 85 grams.
- With your hands, roll a portion of cookie dough into a ball then press a chocolate chunk into the top. Repeat with the remaining dough, placing them onto a lined baking tray as you roll.
- Cover the tray with clingfilm then chill the cookie dough in the fridge overnight.
Baking
- The next day, preheat an oven to 175°c/155°c fan (347°f/311°f).
- Whilst your oven is heating up, break the peppermint bark into 13 chunks then place back in the fridge.
- Place 3-4 balls of cookie dough onto a lined baking tray, making sure that there’s plenty of room between them.
- Bake the cookies for 9 minutes then open your oven door, lift up the baking tray inside the oven by a few inches then let it drop down against the oven rack. Use enough force so that the cookie starts to deflate. (This is the “Pan Banging” method.)
- Bake for a further 2 minutes then repeat the pan banging process.
- Bake for another 2 minutes (bringing the total bake time to 13 minutes) then remove from the oven.Once baked, the cookies will be crisp on the edges but still soft in the middle.
- As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, use a large, round cookie cutter, to gently scoot each cookie into a perfect round shape. Gently press a piece of peppermint bark on top of each cookie then lightly sprinkle with sea salt. Let the cookies cool completely on the tray.
- Repeat the cooking process with the remaining cookies, baking 3-4 cookies at a time.
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1. To Bake In An Aga - Bake the cookies on a grid shelf placed onto the floor of the baking oven.
2. Peppermint Bark - I used my homemade peppermint bark for these cookies but if you wanted to use shop bought peppermint bark, that will work too! The key to getting the bark to stick to the cookie is to press it on top when the cookie is still warm and soft. I like to place the bark still offset to the molten chocolate chunk!
3. Chocolate - I added chopped After Eights into my cookie dough but feel free to swap these out for extra chocolate instead. You can use white, milk or dark chocolate for these cookies. I used white chocolate for the dough and a mix of white and dark for adding on top.
4. Storage - These cookies should be stored in an airtight container and are best eaten within 3 days.
5. Peppermint Extract - I added a small amount of peppermint extract to the cookie dough. The peppermint bark and after eights do add plenty of mint flavour, so don't worry if you haven't got any.
6. Overnight Chill – The cookie dough requires an overnight chill in the fridge before being baked. Don’t be tempted to skip this step otherwise the cookies will spread out too much when baked.
7. The Pan Banging Method – The way we bake these cookies, is by using a technique called “Pan Banging”. This was created by Sarah Kieffer (The Vanilla Bean Blog) & is used in this recipe to create pools of melted chocolate & to give the cookies a crinkled texture.
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