Chocolate Peppermint Blossoms have a soft, rich chocolate cookie with a sugar exterior and a red and white striped Hershey’s peppermint kiss pressed on top. They are the white chocolate candy cane cousins of Peanut Butter Blossoms and are perfect for cookie exchanges and cookie plates.
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Whenever I’m invited to a cookie exchange, these little beauties are always at the top of my list when I’m considering what to make. They are super simple, which means I don’t have to spend hours messing around with decorating or sprinkles. But they still look beautiful and festive with the red and white stripes!
Plus, the peppermint & chocolate combinations is classic for Christmas but often underrepresented at cookie exchanges!
If peppermint and chocolate is your ultimate holiday flavor combo, then we should definitely be friends. Some of our other favorite peppermint recipes are Peppermint Bark Caramel Corn, Peppermint Macarons, and Peppermint Marshmallows on a brownie with hot fudge on top!
The chocolate peppermint blossoms are one of my kids’ favorite Christmas cookies to make because there are so many jobs for them. They enjoy unwrapping the peppermint Hershey’s kisses, rolling the balls of chocolate cookie dough into spheres, then in the sugar, and most important of all, pressing the kisses into the warm cookies.
The way the peppermint Hershey’s kiss starts to melt slightly on top is my favorite part! It’s a little trickier to achieve than standard peanut butter blossoms, which use milk chocolate kisses that hold their shape better as they melt.
If you press the peppermint kiss into the hot cookies immediately after removing them from the oven, chances are that your kisses won’t hold their shapes at all and will turn to puddles in the center of your cookies. Delicious, mint-flavored puddles, mind you, but they won’t look quite as nice.
If that happens, just call them chocolate thumbprint cookies and no one will be the wiser.
But if you want the cute little kiss shape to remain, you need to wait at least 4 minutes before pressing the kisses into the tops of each cookie. At that point, they still have plenty of residual heat to barely melt the kiss on the bottom, but it won’t compromise the integrity of the kiss shape.
Ingredients
- Butter: I use salted butter in almost all of my baking because it’s what I always keep on hand.
- Sugar: A combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar is classic in cookies. You will also need a little extra granulated sugar for rolling balls of cookie dough in for that sparkly exterior with a slight crunch.
- All-purpose flour: I recipe tested the amount of flour to get it just right so the cookies wouldn’t flatten right out and maintain a little puffiness while staying soft.
- Cocoa powder: I used regular unsweetened cocoa powder in this recipe, but you could use Hershey’s Special Dark or other similar cocoa powder for a darker base if you wanted.
- Egg: Just one for binding.
- Baking soda: This ingredient gives a little lift to the cookies so they puff slightly and stay soft.
- Vanilla extract: A little vanilla extract really adds to the flavor of cookies. Have you ever tried making a batch of cookies without it? The flavor just feels flat and boring. Vanilla adds depth.
- Salt: Just a bit for these!
- Unwrapped Candy Cane Kisses: If Hershey’s ever discontinues these I would be so sad! I always stock up on at least 2-3 bags as soon as they come out in the stores every season!
Let’s make chocolate peppermint blossom cookies!
- Beat the butter and sugar: Use a stand mixer or your hand mixer to beat the butter and sugars together until they are creamy and smooth. This usually takes around 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again until combined, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl
- Add dry ingredients: Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix again until combined. The dough will be a soft one, but it should still be manageable even without refrigerating it first.
- Roll into balls, then roll in sugar: I use a small cookie scoop to ensure even sized balls, then roll them between the palms of my hands so they are smooth before tossing them around in a bowl of sugar to coat the outsides. Space them a couple inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake, wait, then top with unwrapped kisses: These cookies don’t take long to bake at all! Just 7-8 minutes so they say soft and even slightly underbaked. They should start looking puffy and look set around the edges so you know when they are done. Wait 5 minutes, then gently press a peppermint kiss into each cookie.
Storage and freezing
- Chocolate peppermint blossoms are best eaten within 2-3 days but will still be good for up to about 5 days if kept in an airtight container on the counter.
- They freeze well too! Just transfer them to a freezer-safe container for freeze for 2-3 months. Let thaw on the counter before enjoying.
Tips & variations
- Let them firm up: We prefer these still warm when the kiss is almost molten, but if you are taking these to a cookie exchange, let them sit for at least a couple of hours after baking to give the candy cane kisses time to firm up again before plating. If the kisses are still warm, they will squish easily and mar their picture perfect points and stripes.
- More mint!: The mint-iness is subtle and comes only from the kisses themselves. If you want to boost the mint flavor, I recommend adding ½ teaspoon of mint extract to the cookie dough along with the vanilla extract.
- Chocolate on chocolate: If you would rather do a chocolate, on chocolate version, just use regular Hershey’s Kisses. You don’t need to wait 5 minutes to press them into the cookies when they come out of the oven in this case.
- Rolo cookies: Turn these into Rolo cookies by using them same chocolate dough and wrapping it around a Rolo, then baking. The Rolo will melt in the oven for a caramel center that’s delicious!
More Favorite Christmas Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Mexican Wedding Cookies
- Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- Fresh Cranberry Shortbread Bars
Did you make this recipe?
Let me know what you thought with a comment and rating below. You can also take a picture and tag me on Instagram @houseofnasheats or share it on the Pinterest pin so I can see.
Chocolate Peppermint Blossoms
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup salted butter softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar + 3 tablespoons for rolling
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (188g)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 24 unwrapped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy and light, about 2-3 minutes.¾ cup salted butter, ½ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup brown sugar
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat again, scraping the sides of the bowl.1 large egg, 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt, mixing until combined. It’s a very soft dough, but I have found that it doesn’t require chilling.1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour, ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon salt
- Use a small cookie scoop to scoop the dough into 24 balls. Roll them between the palms of your hands to make nice, round spheres, then roll them in the remaining sugar in a shallow dish to coat the outside of each cookie.
- Place the balls of dough a couple inches apart on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 7-9 minutes, just until puffy and barely set, but very, very soft. Slightly underbaking is key to maintaining the soft texture of these cookies.
- Wait 4-5 minutes before pressing a peppermint kiss into the center of each cookie, then wait another 2-3 minutes before using a spatula to transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Placing the peppermint kisses earlier will result in them melting into a puddle in the center of the cookies.24 unwrapped Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses
Notes
- Store the chocolate peppermint blossoms in an airtight container on the counter for up to 5 days.
- If you want to up the mint factor of these cookies, try adding ¼ to ½ teaspoon peppermint extract to the cookie dough at the same time that you add the vanilla extract.
Any one who loves chocolate and kisses, this is a must for the holidays! I think they looks so neat and tidy as well. Very easy recipe and probably my fav to make! I did this for the December Challenge and a holiday party!
Thank you sharing a great recipe. Mine went flat but still looked cute and tasted delicious. I will continue to try this recipe to try and get my cookies a little puffer. My baking soda might not have been fresh enough? Try it. Easy and fun to bake and yummy too.
They are flat because the recipe asks for too much butter.
Hello Amy! How big is your cookie scoop? I know you said it’s a small one, but do you know its specific size (1 tbsp, 2 tbsp, etc)? Just wanna make sure I’m getting these the right size! Thank you!!
It’s a 2 tbsp cookie scoop!
Just a heads up… when you click on 2 for a doubled recipe ingredient’s list, the actual directions, specifically the amounts of sugar, are the same as the single recipe. In other words, the ingredients change, but the actual directions do not.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention! I didn’t think about how that would work when I wrote out the recipe instructions. I’ll have to organize things a bit differently so it doesn’t happen again!
LOVE LOVE LOVE these cookies!
Thank you! I’m glad you like them! They are so delicious!
The flavor was great, for some reason they were breaking apart?
Hi, I just wanted to say that there’s a typo in the recipe. It says 1c sugar in ingredient list for double batch, but I missed in the instructions, which say 1/2 cup. So I had flat cookies which spread. Just wanted to let u know. Sorry, not a typo, a discrepancy. May want to add a little comment in the instructions for people like me lol
Taste great especially with the special dark cocoa, but unfortunately my cookies came out flat. The batter was too soft for me to roll so I did refrigerate my dough a bit so I could scoop and roll.
Followed the recipe to the T, but they flattened out. Still taste really good, but wish they wouldn’t have flattened.
Hmmm there are a couple of reasons why cookies can go flat. If the butter is too soft the cookie can spread. Also, if your baking soda is expired or old it can lead to flat cookies. Some other culprits can be not enough flour or the oven is too hot. I am sorry they were flat! I hope you try them again!
After reading all of the comments about the cookies flattening out too much I decided to put mine in the freezer for a few minutes after I rolled them into balls. They came out nice and round, fluffy (not flat at all) so I’d recommend the chilling, personally.
I appreciate the way you list the measurements within in the directions so I don’t have to keep scrolling back up. I wish everyone did this!!!
I’m glad you found that helpful! I’ve been working at adding the ingredients like that in every recipe and it is taking FOREVER but I’m glad to know it’s useful!