Chocolate-Chip Peppermint Cookies

Candy canes are only so useful after the holidays have come and gone.  What does one do with hundreds of mini candy canes, individually wrapped, sitting above one’s refrigerator?

Fortunately, the New Yorker has a number of suggestions.  You could, for example, crush them up and use them to salt, er rather, mint your your driveway in advance of wintry weather.  You could use them to pull clumps of hair out of your drain or drag struggling marionettes off stage.  These are but a few of the New Yorker’s (somewhat) humorous suggestions.

Or, you could crush them up and make these cookies.  I have tried, unsuccessfully, to make these in the past.  Too often they have devolved into too thin disk-like blobs.  At Caitlin’s excellent suggestion, I refrigerated the dough for about an hour before scooping the dough and putting them in the oven.  It worked like a charm!  We had real, live, peppermint cookies!  That being said, I would still try a test batch of a few cookies to see how they turn out.  If the cookies are still thin, try adding a tablespoon or two of flour to the mix.  This should help firm them up.

Of course, if that still doesn’t work, you could always, as the New Yorker suggests, “Dip them in ink and write poems about the special hell that is having obtained something you once wanted but no longer desire, and can’t, for the life of you, get rid of.”

Chocolate-Chip Peppermint Cookies

PREP TIME: 30 minutes plus 30 minutes for chilling
COOK TIME: 10 minutes
YIELD: 24 to 30 Cookies

WHAT TO GRAB:
8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup crushed candy canes

HOW YOU DO IT:

1.  In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.

2.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Gradually add the dry ingredients to the batter.  Stir in the chips and crushed candy canes.

3.  Place the mixing bowl in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.  If refrigerating overnight, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and then let it come back to slightly below room temperature before baking.

4.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Drop tablespoons of the batter onto a greased baking sheet.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden.  Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for two minutes (they will be easier to get off the pan this way) then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.