Day 3 of my 12 days of cookies: York Peppermint Pieces Cookies. I’ve always seen those cute little packages at Target of candy pieces (Reeses, Almond Joy, Hershey’s Special Dark, etc.), but I never bothered to buy any because I’m so used to the original form of the candies.
Then, on a flight that I was working, a passenger gave us a bag of these York Pieces. YUM! Of course, the people I was working with wanted nothing to do with the candy (we get a lot of treats and apparently everyone’s watching their figure), so I gladly took the bag for myself.
The first thing I think of when I get candy is, “Can I bake this into something?” The hard shells remind me of M&M’s, so naturally, the candies went into a cookie.
… and what a mighty fine cookie that was. It should be a crime for cookies to look this pretty. Just look at the crinkly top, the beautiful clash in colors, the perfect circle shape (I didn’t even use a cookie scoop!), and the uniformity of thickness in each cookie. You’re lucky to get one of those characteristics in a cookie, but all four?! Impossible… Or so I thought.
The dark chocolate cocoa powder that I used goes great with the minty flavor. Dark chocolate and mint go together like peanut butter and jelly. They just belong.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used dark)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1 stick (½ cup) butter, cut into pieces
- ¾ cup York Pieces (or similar candy)
- 1½ cups sugar 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 325˚F.
- Melt the semisweet chocolate and butter using a double boiler method, stirring until smooth. Set aside and let cool for 2-3 minutes.
- In a mixer, combine the melted chocolate, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
- Slowly mix in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the candy pieces.
- Roll the dough into tablespoon sized balls and place on baking sheet.
- Bake for 13-14 minutes. Let them cool on pan for 2-3 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
These would make good Hanukkah cookise, too!
when i made these, they puffed up until they became hollow and big and essentially really hard. What did i do wrong?