Peppermint Cookie Dough Snowmen Recipe

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Photo by Sarah Terletsky

Here’s the final product! These are a fun treat to bag up and gift to friends, family, teachers, etc. or to just make with friends and enjoy while watching a movie.

In my opinion, desserts are always the best part of any holiday feast. They can be fun to make, and it is so satisfying when they taste as good as they look. If you’re looking for a dessert that does both, you might want to try making peppermint cookie dough snowmen. I based this recipe on this regular cookie dough recipe:

This recipe produces 3 cups of cookie dough and about 16 – 18 snowmen.

Ingredients and Materials:

For the dough:

· 1 cup brown sugar

· ¼ cup granulated sugar

· 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature

· 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

· 1 – 1 ½ teaspoon peppermint extract

· 1 teaspoon salt

· 2 cups all-purpose flour

· 2 tablespoons milk plus more if needed

· ½ cup white chocolate chips

· ¼ – ½ cup of crushed mini peppermint candy cane

For the decorations:

· Mini M&M’s

· White chocolate chips (amount will vary when melting, melt about ½ cup at a time)

· Mini candy cane stems (the straight part, not the curve)

· ¼ teaspoon coconut oil (per ½ cup of chocolate chips)

· (You will also need cake pop sticks)

(Tip: I recommend using Toll’s House chocolate chips because it works well for melting.)

Recipe:

1. Leave the butter out on a plate to warm to room temperature. You can speed this process up by cutting the butter up into smaller pieces.

2. Take the mini candy canes and begin breaking the straight stem pieces away from the curved part of the candy cane. Save about 32 – 36 stems to decorate all your snowmen later and put the curved pieces into a plastic sandwich sized bag. Lay the bag flat on top of a paper towel, to catch any crumbs in case the bag tears a little and crush the candy cane as small as possible with a rolling pin. Continue crushing until you have at least ¼ cup of candy cane bits and set those aside. You can crush more than that if you want your dough to be very pepper minty.

3. To make the raw cookie dough edible, you must heat treat your flour. To do this, place it in a microwave safe bowl and heat it on high for 50 – 60 seconds until the internal temperature reaches 166 degrees Fahrenheit. If it still doesn’t reach this temperature after 60 seconds you can heat it for another 10 –15 seconds until it’s warm enough.

4. In a large bowl using a stand or hand mixer, cream together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter until they are fully mixed, fluffy, and light in color. Then beat in the vanilla, peppermint extract, and salt until combined. If you would like the dough to taste very strongly of peppermint you can add 1 ½ teaspoons of peppermint extract instead of just 1 teaspoon.

5. Beat in the flour until just combined. Add one tablespoon of milk at a time and beat until the dough starts to come together. Stir in the white chocolate chips and crushed candy cane.

6. Put the dough in the freezer for 5 – 10 minutes. While you wait, make sure that the candy cane stems, M&M’s, and cake pop sticks are within reach so you can work quickly

while decorating. Also, prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper so that you have a place to put your snowmen.

7. Take the dough out of the freezer. Shape 2 balls of dough that are smaller than a golf ball and slide them onto the stick so that they are stacked on top of one another. Repeat this until there is no dough left. Put them back in the freezer for another 5 – 10 minutes.

8. Put about ½ cup of white chocolate chips and ¼ teaspoon of coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl at high power for 30 – 45 seconds. Stir the chocolate quickly to smooth it out. If it still hasn’t melted, you can microwave it for another 10 – 15 seconds. Also, if the chocolate is too thick, you can stir in another ¼ teaspoon of coconut oil. (Tip: to prevent the chocolate from seizing, make sure that the materials you use for melting the chocolate are completely dry.)

9. Take the dough out of the freezer. Pick up one stick of dough and pour the chocolate over with a spoon the dough until it is completely covered. To smooth the chocolate out you can gently spin the stick while the excess chocolate drips into the bowl. Lay the snowman flat on the cookie sheet. While the chocolate is still wet, take 2 candy cane stems and dip one end of each in the chocolate. Stick the candy canes into the middle section of the snowman’s body at the sides so that they look like arms. For the eyes, nose, and buttons dip a few M&M’s one at a time into the chocolate and stick them onto the snowman.

10. Continue covering the other sticks of dough in chocolate and decorations until the chocolate is no longer runny. Once your chocolate starts solidifying, put the cookie sheet into the freezer for 5 minutes, add another ½ cup of chocolate and ¼ teaspoon of coconut oil to your bowl and remelt it. Take the snowmen out of the freezer and decorate another few until the chocolate solidifies again. You will need to repeat this process of melting chocolate, decorating, and cooling the snowmen so you may want to get a few people to help you to speed this process up. (Tip: As you decorate, place the snowmen in an alternating pattern so that one snowman’s head points up and the one next to it points down. This will prevent them from sticking to each other and save room.)

11. Once all the snowmen are done, put them in the freezer for 5 – 10 minutes to completely solidify the chocolate. After that you can put them on a plate and store them in the refrigerator until they are to be served.