I was in charge of making some cookies for this Christmas, and I was running low on baking supplies so I had to get a little more creative than just some chocolate chip cookies. All out of chocolate chips, and no stores open until the 26th, I rummaged through my cupboards to see what I had on hand.
I decided to just make some chocolate cookies with cocoa power and, being Christmas, decided that peppermint would be a great addition. And because, of course I had half a pound of crushed peppermint laying around but no chocolate chips.
A quick google search later and I found this recipe for chocolate peppermint cookies from the Minimalist Baker. They looked tasty and turned out delicious, though I had to omit the chocolate chips that were called for because I didn’t have any.
One kind of cookie wasn’t good enough for me though and I thought about what else I could make. Improvising was necessary.
I decided to use the base of the dough from chocolate peppermint cookies and ommit the peppermint additions entirely. I zested up some orange and then raided my spice shelf for anything that I thought might go well with orange. Cinnamon, clove, ginger, and nutmeg. It felt like the makings of a great Christmas cookie. I also used Hershey’s Extra Dark Cocoa powder because I was really feeling like a dark chocolate was what I wanted for these cookies.
These cookies are pretty adaptable, and if you don’t like one of the spices, you could ommit it. Or, if you’re say, absolutely crazy about ginger or nutmeg, you could increase the amount of spice accordingly.
This all comes together in one bowl, no problem, on top of everything else!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp orange zest
- 1/4 teaspoon ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon clove
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup Extra Dark cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until well mixed.
- Add the egg, orange zest, and spices. Mix until everything is evenly incorporated.
- Add flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix until combined and dough is uniform.
- Drop teaspoon size amounts of dough 1 inch apart on a line cookie sheet(I use a silpat).
- Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cookies will seem underdone when you pull them out(With the dark cocoa powder it will be hard to tell just by looking at them). Let them rest on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Sweetosaurus 