Hi, friends! Today I have made you some chocolate peppermint crinkle cookies! They’re gluten-free, rich and fudgy, just pepperminty enough, and filled with tiny pieces of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark. Let’s talk a bit about how I made them and then get on with the recipe.
If you are all about chocolate and peppermint, you may enjoy my chocolate peppermint brownie brittle recipe.
And if you dig these cookies but would prefer a non-peppermint version, you may enjoy my Chocolate Pecan Dream Cookies.
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Researching Crinkle Cookies
I looked at about a dozen similar cookie recipes online.
I wasn’t concerned about the peppermint portion since all I needed for that was peppermint oil and my inspiration in the first place: the bars of Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark I bought at the store the other day. I knew I wanted to use those guys–I bought two of the dark chocolate kind–in a cookie, and I’ve been seeing crinkle cookies around. Kismet!
Many of the recipes called for a fair bit of flour–some up to 2 cups–and I didn’t want any part of those.
I wanted deeply fudgy cookies, and 2 cups of flour is way too much if you’re looking for fudgy.
Many of the crackle cookie recipes I found were based almost solely on cocoa powder.
There’s nothing wrong with that–cocoa powder often packs more chocolate flavor that actual chocolate, but unless you use a boatload of fat, and a lot less than 2 cups of flour, cocoa powder cookies tend to be a bit dry.
Making a Gluten-Free Crackle Cookie
Then I thought I’d go the gluten-free route, hoping to find a cookie based on almond flour since I’d bought a bag of really finely milled almond flour from Bob’s Red Mill.
Alas, stymied again. Many of the gluten-free versions I saw were made with pre-mixed gluten-free blends or a mix of almond flours and other flours. Again, that’s totally fine, but I wanted to use all almond flour.
And then, I remembered Gesine.
Gesine Bullock-Prado, awesome pastry chef, cookbook author, Craftsy culinary instructor, former blogger at G Bakes!, and all around good egg (I bet she is, anyway), and also Sandra Bullock’s sister.
Plus, she has cats, so there’s that. By the way, if you don’t follow her, you should. She’s on facebook, twitter, instagram, and YouTube.
At any rate, my friend Sandy (not Sandra Bullock) has done some recipe testing for Gesine, and last year she sent me a cello baggie of the best, fudgiest little gluten-free chocolate cookies from Gesine’s book. They’re called Starry, Starry Nights, and they are incredibly delicious.
Those cookies became the inspiration for my Heavenly Chocolate Pecan Dream Cookies, so I knew it would be a recipe fairly easy to adapt to my chocolate-peppermint crackly purposes.
I made almost no changes to her original formula for Starry Starry Nights. All I did was to:
- introduce peppermint oil and the chopped peppermint bark bars
- scooped them a bit larger than she does and rolled them in powdered sugar–two coats–rather than granulated sugar to get the crackle effect.
Chocolate Peppermint is Always a Great Flavor Combo
These fudgy little guys are not hard to make at all. Honest. And even though I wasn’t Super Sure the crinkle would work, it did. And it worked beautifully.
The peppermint flavor shines through and balances with the fudgy chocolatiness perfectly.
And when you get a tiny piece of the chopped candy? Forget about it! So good.
Ingredients
Here’s a quick rundown on the ingredients you’ll need:
- eggs
- granulated sugar
- peppermint oil
- kosher salt
- bittersweet chocolate
- butter
- almond flour
- cocoa powder
- chopped peppermint bark
- powdered sugar
Procedure
And here’s an outline of the steps:
- Melt chocolate and butter and allow to cool
- Whisk together almond flour and cocoa powder
- Stir those two mixtures together evenly
- Whip eggs, sugar, peppermint oil and salt until billowy
- Fold eggs into dry
- Chill dough
- Scoop, roll in powdered sugar, and bake
Now you know what to expect, let’s make these guys.
I really hope you love these crinkle cookies, you guys! If you make them, please share a photo with me, either in the PCO Facebook Group or on instagram by tagging @onlinepastrychef and using hashtag #pcorecipe. Thanks, and enjoy!
Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies (Gluten-Free)
These chocolate peppermint crinkle cookies are rich and deeply chocolaty like truffles. Flavored with half a pound of dark chocolate and a tiny bit of peppermint oil, they are generously studded with Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark. I know they will be the gluten-free hit of your next cookie exchange!
Ingredients
- 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, (Use any good quality dark chocolate)
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2.6 ounces Bob's Red Mill, (or similar) super fine almond flour
- 2 teaspoons non-dutch processed cocoa powder
- 2 bars, (6 oz) chocolate peppermint candy, finely chopped (I used Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark)
- 2 large eggs, (at room temperature)
- 2.4 ounces ( 1/4 cup plus one tablespoon) sugar
- 5 drops peppermint oil or 1/4-1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar, for coating
Instructions
- Using a double boiler or the microwave on medium power in 30 second bursts, melt the chocolate and butter together. Stir until smooth and set aside to cool slightly.
- Whisk together the almond flour and cocoa powder.
- Stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until evenly combined.
- Stir in the finely chopped chocolate.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip together the eggs, sugar, peppermint oil and salt until very light and fluffy and tripled in volume.
- Whisk about 1/4 of the egg mixture together with the almond flour mixture.
- Then gently but thoroughly fold in the rest of the eggs.
- Cover and chill for 45 minutes.
- While the dough is chilling, set a rack in the top and bottom thirds of your oven and preheat to 350F.
- Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Sift the powdered sugar into a bowl.
To Shape the Cookies
- Using a 1 1/2 Tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop a level portion of dough and drop it into the powdered sugar.
- Toss it lightly in the powdered sugar and then roll the dough into a ball, and then place on the cookie sheet.
- Continue shaping and placing dough. You should end up with 24 cookies, 12 on each sheet.
- Coat each cookie a second time in the powdered sugar and place back on the sheets. (See Notes)
- Bake for 7 minutes, then rotate the sheets and switch them from top to bottom rack for even baking.
- Bake an additional 6-7 minutes. Cookies will spread to about 2 inches or so and be all crackly on top. The dough will look moist but not wet.
- Remove to cool on the sheets for 2-3 minutes. Then place the cookies on racks to cool completely.
Notes
After the initial shaping and placing on cookie sheets, you can choose to refrigerate the cookies for 45 minutes before coating in powdered sugar a second time. Your cookies will spread less if you chill them. My photos are of cookies I baked right after shaping and rolling in sugar twice. I didn't bother to chill them a second time. It's your call.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 24 Serving Size 1 cookieAmount Per Serving Calories 120Total Fat 8gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 20mgSodium 64mgCarbohydrates 10gFiber 2gSugar 7gProtein 2g
And there you have it. Perfectly moist, fudgy chocolate peppermint crinkle cookies that also happen to be gluten free. Magic!
And hey, I made you a long pin, if you’d like to save these guys to Pinterest.
And there you have it, friends. Enjoy the Christmas cookies. And share them with your friends who are gluten-free. They will love you for it!
Thanks so much for spending some time with me today. Have a lovely day.
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