Peppermint Candy Cookies
Submitted by fsteacher
Peppermint candy cookies with a buttery walnut shortbread shell hiding a pink cream cheese filling inside. Rolled in crushed peppermint and powdered sugar after baking.
YIELD
1 batchPREP
COOK
10 minREADY
2 hrsThese Christmas cookies are a labor of love with a sweet surprise inside. A buttery walnut shortbread dough wraps around a tiny pocket of pink cream cheese filling blended with crushed peppermint candy. After baking, the warm cookies get rolled in more crushed peppermint and powdered sugar for a snowy, candy-speckled finish.
The dough is a classic shortbread: butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, flour, and chopped walnuts. Chilling for an hour firms it up so it’s easy to shape around the filling without cracking or tearing.
The filling is small but potent. Just cream cheese, powdered sugar, a drop of red food coloring, and the crushed candy mixture. You only need about ¼ teaspoon per cookie, tucked into a thumb-shaped well in each dough ball.
Chef Tips
- Crush the peppermint candy in a sealed plastic bag with a rolling pin. A food processor turns it to dust. You want small pieces, not powder.
- Don’t overbake. These cookies should stay pale, not golden. Browning changes the delicate butter flavor.
- Pinch the dough closed completely around the filling. Any gaps leak pink cream cheese during baking.
- Roll in the candy-sugar mixture while still warm so it sticks. Cool cookies won’t hold the coating.
Variations
- Chocolate peppermint: Add a tablespoon of cocoa powder to the dough for a chocolate-mint combination.
- Almond shortbread: Replace the walnuts with finely chopped almonds and use almond extract instead of vanilla.
- Lemon cream filled: Skip the peppermint and fill with a lemon zest cream cheese mixture for a citrus version.
Ingredients
Directions
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together until fluffy.
Add the flour and walnuts and blend to form dough.
Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
Candy mixture:
In a small bowl combine both ingredients.
Set aside.
Three tablespoons of this mixture is used in the filling and the remainder is used to garnish the cookies.
The filling:
In a bowl blend together the cream cheese, milk, food coloring and the confectioners’ sugar until smooth.
Blend in 3 tablespoons of the candy mixture.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and for each cookie pinch off a rounded teaspoon of the dough.
Form into a ball and shape around your thumb to make a little compartment in the middle.
Place about ¼ teaspoon of the cream cheese filling in the depression.
Pinch the dough back together and roll it back into a ball.
Repeat the process with the remaining dough and filling.
Place the balls on a nonstick cookie sheet.
Bake in a preheated 350℉ (180℃) oven for 10 to 12 minutes.
Do not brown.
Remove cookies to a cooling rack.
To garnish, roll the cooled cookies in the remaining candy mixture.
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