Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprints
Combining chocolate cookies, chocolate peppermint ganache, and crushed candy canes, these chocolate peppermint thumbprints are extra festive and bound to disappear off cookie platters. Chill the shaped dough for at least 2 hours to help guarantee the cookies hold their shape.
Ingredients
Instructions
Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, add the milk, and mix on low until combined. The cookie dough will be thick.
Roll balls of dough, a little less than 1 Tablespoon each (about 1 inch balls), and roll each into remaining 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar. Place dough balls onto a large lined baking sheet. Using your thumb or the end of a spatula (see post above), make an indent into each cookie. If you find that the balls are cracking when you make an indent, use your hands to push back together. (Some cracks are bound to happen as the cookies expand in the ovenâsee my photos. No worries there!)
Chill the shaped cookies for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator or 1 hour in the freezer (or up to 4 days in the refrigerator). Cover them if chilling for longer than 3 hours.
Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Remove chilled and shaped cookies from the refrigerator. Divide between both baking sheets, spacing the cookies about 2-3 inches apart. This recipe yields about 30 cookies, so you’ll have a 3rd batch with only a few cookies on the sheet.
Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the edges are set. The cookies will still look and feel a little soft. Remove from the oven. The indents will have lost some shape or have puffed up, so use the end of a spatula to make an indent again into the warm cookies.
Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before filling with ganache.
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Continue Reading at Sallysbakingaddiction →Chef's Notes
Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Store any leftover ganache in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can make and shape the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, as noted in step 4. Baked and filled (or unfilled) cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before serving.
Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack
Troubleshooting Chocolate Ganache: See my Chocolate Ganache post if you need more information on the ganache. I answer a lot of ganache FAQs there!
Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Store any leftover ganache in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. You can make and shape the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, as noted in step 4. Baked and filled (or unfilled) cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before serving.
Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheet | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack
Troubleshooting Chocolate Ganache: See my Chocolate Ganache post if you need more information on the ganache. I answer a lot of ganache FAQs there!
Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Comments & Photos
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Reviews from the Original Source
Thank you for sharing this recipe it’s a keeper everyone love how it’s taste
I have peppermint hershey kisses, could I use this base recipe to insert them after they baked? Similar to how the peanut butter blossoms are made. By the way, always use your recipes because they are spot on. Thank You.
I made these with my two young sons and they were so fun to make! I thought the peppermint on both the cookie and ganache may be too much so for the children so we only put it in the cookie dough. Some of mine spread quite a bit but it's my fault for getting impatient with using 1 tbsp of dough ha. It was a plus though because it left more room for ganache! Yum!! A hit in my house. Saving for future use.
Thank you so much for this recipe!
I made it without the peppermint and added about 1/2 tsp of espresso powder to the cookie dough. I then did 1/2 tsp of cherry jam in a few of them.
I agree with other comments that have tried jelly to maybe put it in after a few mins of cooking because it really melted in when doing it from the start (maybe if the dough was frozen it wouldnt?) But they came out beautiful and sooooo delicious when topped with a little of the ganache.
The ones I did with straight ganache are just as delicious ♡ but the cherry ones are like little bites of black forest bliss. I may have to try it again and add in some cherry liquor. Definitely adding as a staple recipe moving forward ♡
I followed the recipe almost exactly (didn’t have any peppermint candies to garnish with, used chocolate chips instead of bar when making ganache) and they were fantastic! I baked some immediately and some after chilling, the chilled did turn out better but either way was tasty. A perfect winter treat!
These are one of my favorites to make and everyone loves them. I like how well they store in the freezer with or without the ganache. Back in 2019 I made a batch of these and Sally's gingerbread ganache filled sandwich cookies. They were both filled and then frozen after baking. Sadly we lost our mom 4 days into the new yr. Since I knew family and friends would be at her house I grabbed both sets of cookies and by the time I got to my mom's house they had already warmed up. I was able to take something without having to worry about making anything on one of the hardest days of my life. Mom was a big fan of both cookies as well. She also loved Sally's strawberry on strawberry cake. Mom passed without warning but I'm thankful that I was able to make the strawberry on strawberry cake for her 4 months prior. I would often tell her about Sally's website. She was so happy that I got back into baking from scratch. Other than our birthday cakes (mom made them) as a teenager I was the baker in the family. I'll just put it this way. Every recipe I ever made from Sally my mom loved. Thanks for sharing your talent with us. Because of you I was able to treat my mom to some desserts I never made as a teen. Sorry for going off track. I was just hoping to share how well these and the other cookies hold up after freezing. You'd never know they were. Happy Holidays to you and yours Sally
I put these in my holiday cookie box last year and they were a huge hit! I will be making them again. I bake and fill with the ganache and freeze them. They come out great.
These cookies are delicious! I made them as the recipe goes last year, and this year I changed them up a bit since my husband isn’t a peppermint guy. Instead of the peppermint extract in the cookies and ganache, I did orange, and we had chocolate orange thumbprint cookies! I also accidentally put the sugar for rolling into the dough and they still turned out great, and not too sweet.
However, I doubled my batch this year and my cookies were around the tablespoon size, I only ended up with maybe 40 cookies, rather than the 60ish. I also found the baking time to be too much as my cookies were overbaked already by the 12 minute mark (a bit dry on the edges), even though they’re likely larger than they should’ve been. I found them to be done around the 10min mark.
I love so many of your recipes! I made these for the first time and didn’t use peppermint intentionally. I found the cookies to be dry. The ganache was the savior. Thanks for all of the other wonderful recipes!
I love these! They are so easy and love the peppermint and chocolate. I doubled the batch without a problem. They are definitely on my cookie list for next year.
The family loved the cookies especially my son in law. I left off the peppermint out of the ganache.
Did you make this recipe?
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