Chocolate Mint Blossom Cookies

These Chocolate Mint Blossom Cookies have a nice soft and slightly fudgy texture with rich chocolate flavor and rolled in sugar with a Hershey's peppermint kiss pressed right in the middle. They are very festive and fun to serve around the holidays. If you love blossom cookies, try my Marble Peanut Butter Blossom cookies that are a fun twist on the classic with original Hershey's kisses.

WHY YOU WILL LOVE THIS RECIPE

• Rich chocolate cookies - these cookies have a rich buttery chocolate flavor that is not overly sweet with underlying notes of vanilla and a hint of salt.
• Mint chocolate cookie dough - rich chocolate cookie dough is infused with vanilla and peppermint extract.
• Soft and chewy texture - this recipe yields soft cookies that are slightly chewy with the sugar coating on the outside
• Hershey's kiss in the middle - I've used a mix of classic creamy Hershey's milk chocolate kisses and the swirled candy cane kisses for extra peppermint flavor. They are pressed right into the center of each cookie while they are still warm so that they stick and set right in.

INGREDIENTS

• Butter - in this recipe, you can use salted or unsalted butter, but if you choose unsalted then I recommend doubling the added salt to ½ teaspoon. I like to use salted butter because it adds another level of richness to complement the peanut butter.
• Granulated sugar - this recipe uses a combination of simple white granulated sugar and brown sugar. White sugar helps create the crunchy edges and you will also need sugar for rolling the cookie dough.
• Brown sugar - I highly recommend dark brown sugar for this recipe as it has twice as much molasses as light brown sugar and will make a big difference to the flavour. It will also make the dough more acidic which means it will react more thoroughly with the baking soda so that you won't be left with a soapy taste (a defect I find common in many chocolate chip cookie recipes)
• Egg - one whole egg will set the cookie dough. It's the perfect amount of moisture to make these cookies chewy and not cakey.

• Pure vanilla extract - vanilla is essential to enhancing the taste of the peanut butter and the chocolate. I like this Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract.
• Peppermint extract - this is where the mint flavor is coming from.
• Salt - don't leave out the salt! It really elevates the rich buttery taste and balances the sweetness.
• All purpose flour - regular unbleached all-purpose flour makes the best cookies in my opinion.
• Cocoa powder - to make the chocolate cookie dough, you add a bit of cocoa and milk to half of the dough. You can use Natural or Dutch cocoa powder. Note that Dutch cocoa will give it a darker color.
• Hershey's Kisses - grab a pack of Hershey's kisses and unwrap one for each cookie. Press a kiss right into the warm cookie after it comes out of the oven. It will melt slightly so it sticks and sets into the cookie.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

• STEP 1). Beat together butter and sugar. You can use an electric stand mixer, a hand mixer or do this by hand with a spatula. You want to beat the butter, and both sugars until slightly pale and a bit fluffy, but not overly creamed. It will still look like a thick paste or damp sand and this will leave us with chewy cookies. Over-mixing at this point would make more crumbly cookies.
• STEP 2). Beat in egg. Add the egg, vanilla and peppermint extracts and beat until well incorporated and smooth.
• STEP 3). Combine dry ingredients. Blend flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl and whisk it to blend evenly. Then, add it to the butter mixture and mix it in until evenly combined.
• STEP 4). Make the chocolate dough. Combine half of the dough with milk and cocoa powder and mix well. Place it back in the bowl with the base dough.
• STEP 5). Refrigerate the cookie dough. Cover the bowl and chill for 1 hour.
• STEP 6). Scoop and roll. Scoop up about 2 level tablespoons of cookie dough and roll i sugar.
• STEP 7). Bake until golden on the edges and still soft in the middle. Do not over-bake as they will continue cooking on the hot baking tray.
• STEP 8). Add the kiss. Press a Hershey's kiss into each cookie while they are still warm.

EXPERT TIPS FOR BLOSSOM COOKIES

• Don't skip the salt. The right amount of salt is so important. I use salted butter because there's something about salted butter that provides an underlying richness that can't be quite copied by adding salt separately. You can use unsalted butter if that is all you have on hand, and in that case increase the total salt in the recipe to ¾ teaspoon. BUT, if you have salted butter then you will not regret it!
• Use regular large size eggs. Large eggs weigh 57g. Using an extra large egg will add up to 2 teaspoons more liquid to the cookie dough which can throw off the moisture balance and make the cookies spread too much.
• Refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 1 hour. Refrigerating cookie dough serves several purposes: 1.) Flour hydration - time in the fridge allows the flour to fully hydrate from the moisture of the egg and the water in the butter. If the flour is evenly hydrated, the cookies will be thicker and they will bake more evenly; 2.) Flavor development -as the baking soda becomes more evenly incorporated with the flour hydration, the cookies will brown more evenly which will help them develop flavor more quickly; and, 3.) Chill the butter - butter in the cookie dough will also firm up in the fridge so that the cookies wont be so greasy after they've baked. Chilled fat will also spread less readily during the initial stages of baking so the cookies won't spread uncontrollably.

RECIPE FAQ

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Pairing

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