These cookies scream Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays or whathaveyou)! Ultimate Peppermint Bark Cookies are actually Salted Peppermint Bark Cookies with Crushed Gluten Free Peppermint Joe Joe’s! Whew. That’s a mouthful! And so are these cookies. Which you’ll totally die over. In the best way possible.
My husband and I had the brilliant idea to celebrate Christmas yesterday. We called Saturday “Christmas Eve” and kept saying “Merry Christmas” to each other all day yesterday (between his screams of anger about some football game that apparently didn’t go well…). We woke up and opened presents, I made a peppermint latte for myself…we rolled in crumbled paper while our dogs tried to understand what in the world was going on. Loved it!
My good friend even texted “Merry Christmas” to my little family that morning. So sweet!
We had so much fun. I was in an amazing mood. I got everything I asked for and could have dreamed of!
I was even in such a good mood that I went out and bought clothes that fit (a struggle in my life) that afternoon without having a single meltdown! Seriously, who am I?! Christmas should come early every year!
And I can’t wait to celebrate it again on Thursday with our family. Two Christmases need to happen every year. I’m a genius.
Another genius move? These cookies. Ultimate Peppermint Bark Cookies! My husband ate an entire batch. No joke. Well…I ate a few. But I swear he ate an entire batch!
They’re a crazy yummy basic gluten free cookie dough that is jam packed with peppermint bark pieces (I used Trader Joe’s but you can use the Andes version) and chopped up gluten free Peppermint Joe Joe’s (if you can find an Oreo-like cookie in gluten free at Whole Paycheck or at another grocery store, use those if you don’t have a Trader Joe’s!). All of that pepperminty sweet goodness is balanced out with a slight salty bite from coarse sea salt!
Isn’t that sea salt gorgeous?! I found it in Trader Joe’s and I believe it’s a “triangular” salt flake. It’s huge and beautiful and I put it on everything!
Not so brilliant move? Using that brown-ish parchment. It was all I had and it makes the entire presentation look like shades of brown. Or like my white balance is off because it should be white. But its all good. Its brown. Whatever. It’s Christmas!
Anyways, celebrate Christmas or whatever holiday you wish on any day you wish and have the happiest day ever!
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temp (1 stick)
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups minus 2 Tbs. gluten free flour blend
- ½ tsp. baking powder
- ¼ tsp. coarse Kosher salt
- ½ cup peppermint bark baking pieces (Trader Joe’s or Andes)
- ½-1 cup chopped gluten free “Peppermint Joe Joe’s” (or Oreo-like sandwich cookies)*
- sea salt, for sprinkling
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line baking sheets with parchment.
- In your mixer, combine the softened butter and sugars. Cream until light in color, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and let beat until completely mixed in. Then, add the vanilla and let it mix in.
- Turn off your mixer and add the flour, baking powder and salt. Turn your mixer on and let it pull into a dough. Just before the flour looks mixed in (ribbons), add the peppermint bark pieces and chopped up Joe Joe's. Let those mix in and the dough to pull together, then turn off your mixer.
- Scoop out your dough onto your parchment (I use a 1-2Tbs cookie scoop), well spaced (max 12 cookies per cookie sheet). Sprinkle each dough mound with coarse salt.
- Bake cookies for 13 minutes. (you don't want to over-bake them, so they may look pale, but they shouldn't look like they're raw at all)
- Let cool on a wire rack before transferring the cookies from the pans to the wire racks to finish cooling. Eat, gift (haha), enjoy!
- *I grabbed 5-6 cookies and chopped them up, not really caring about a set amount
I also made Renee‘s Bohemian Dream Gift Granola and holy shit it’s amazing! I highly recommend it! I only had Bourbon so I used that instead of spiced rum, and then I subbed 1/2 Brazil nuts and 1/2 pistachios for the hazel nuts. I don’t get to make other bloggers’ recipes all too often so I was really excited to try her recipe and can’t recommend it enough!
Need a drink to go with these cookies?! Any of these would be amazing! Have a great day!
i just bought a box of these gf cookies and they are so good! this must be one amazing cookie. i need to make them tomorrow before our christmas eve party!
Amanda Paa recently posted…Gluten-Free Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: Recipe + a Giveaway!
Those look yummy! Oh, and a good reason to go to Trader Joes to get the baking bits . .. . and every other delicious things I see. I have a weakness for the holiday goodies!
Jennifer FIsher recently posted…Fruit & Nut Holiday Couscous Mix – DIY Gift for Foodies
oooh baby! i’d like to have a stash of these in my kitchen all year long!
Linz @ Itz Linz recently posted…‘Twas a marvelous weekend!
These look absolutely wonderful. I love the combination of cookie and bark. And yes, two Christmases is genius!
Michelle @ The Complete Savorist recently posted…Kringla
These cookies sound amazing! I have never tried making bark before, but I will eat seriously anything in a cookie.
ATasteOfMadness recently posted…Coconut, Chocolate and Cornflake Cookies
We have several families so we celebrate Christmas day on many days. 🙂 These cookies look delicious! Love peppermint this time of the year.
Tina @ Tina’s Chic Corner recently posted…Too Much Chocolate Cake