Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cookies

I'll say it up front. For all those perceptive Readers out there. This post? It's a redux slash revamp of a previous chocolate cookie recipe. Why? Because Darling, we are always tweaking and gently nudging recipes toward perfection around here. Though as you and I well know, perfection is unattainable (in the gluten-free vegan baking world, that is). But we can come close. Very close. And with this latest peppermint chocolate incarnation (thanks to Steve) we are a good nibble closer to the best chocolate cookie yet. So of course, I had to share.

These peppermint laced fudgy sweethearts are crisp chocolate goodness. We freeze ours and serve them slightly chilled. Those of you more adept at fancy baking could try creating heart shapes. (I never have the patience to fuss with dough. I'm more of rustic make a mess in the kitchen blasting Bruce Springsteen's Magic kind of baker than a precise "mis en place" to Sarah Brightman kind of gal. But if cookie cutters are your middle name? Knock yourself out.)

These are lovely warm from the oven with an ice cold glass of vanilla hemp milk.




Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cookies

When we first made these little beauties we squashed them with a fork. Not any more. Now we chill the dough for an hour and wad the dough into balls. Balls make for a lovely rounded dome of a cookie, let me tell you.

Whisk these dry ingredients together:

1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup organic white sugar
3/4 cup organic light brown sugar

In a separate bowl combine:

2/3 cup Spectrum Organic Shortening
2 tablespoons molasses
7 to 10 tablespoons chocolate hemp milk or rice milk, as needed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
Egg replacer for 2 eggs (or 2 free-range organic eggs)

Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir well to combine. The dough should be sturdy, not too sticky.

If the dough is too stiff, add chocolate hemp milk or rice milk one tablespoon at a time to soften. If by chance the dough is too wet, add a tablespoon of rice flour, as needed, until it sets up better.

Add a heaping 1/2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips.

Stir to combine and form the dough into a mound. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill for one hour. Go Twitter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Get your baking sheets ready. I like to use parchment or a silicone mat liner.

Form the dough into 24 balls and place them on baking sheets 2-3 inches apart. Press down on the balls VERY slightly.

Bake for about 15 to 18 minutes until the cookies are firm to a light touch, and cracked a bit. Bake less, for smaller or thinner cookies, of course. The cookies will yield to touch but not be sloppy-soft.

Cool a few minutes before using a thin spatula to remove them from the baking pan to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.

Wrap by twos in foil, bag, and freeze.

Yields about 24 cookies.

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