These peppermint cookies are loaded with white chocolate chunks, candy canes, and Oreo pieces for a unique holiday cookie that everyone will love!
I’ve combined Oreo cookies, candy canes and white chocolate in a soft and tender vanilla cookie for a Christmas treat that’s perfect for cookie exchanges, class parties and gift giving. Looking for more cookie recipes? Don’t miss my Italian cookies, thumbprint cookies and stained glass cookies!
There’s nothing better than some sweet Christmas recipes, and these peppermint cookies are just loaded with fun additions. Who can resist a sprinkling of candy canes, Oreo cookies and white chocolate all in one place? They’re perfect for your holiday cookie tray.
Table of Contents
Peppermint Cookies Ingredients
To make these chewy cookies, you will need butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, peppermint extract (optional), all purpose flour, salt, instant vanilla pudding mix, baking soda, Oreo cookies, white chocolate and crushed candy canes.
How Do You Make Peppermint Cookies?
Preheat the oven, and line a baking sheet with either parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Place the butter and both types of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, and cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and extracts, then beat to combine. Next add the flour, salt, pudding mix and baking soda. Mix until everything is just blended. Fold in most of the cookies, white chocolate and candy canes. Place cookie dough balls on the sheet pan, and press the remaining Oreos, white chocolate and candy canes into the top of the cookies. Bake, then cool on a wire rack. Serve and enjoy.
Tips For The Perfect Cookies
- Keep your Oreo cookies in larger pieces – if you chop them too finely your cookies will turn gray.
- I use chopped white chocolate bar versus chips because I like a chunkier cookie. Also, white chocolate baking bars typically contain real cocoa butter. The bars also taste better than white chocolate chips, as most brands contain palm oil.
- After you’ve rolled your cookie dough into balls, you can press some pieces of Oreo, chocolate and candy cane on top for a nice presentation.
- Store your peppermint cookies for up to 4 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
- The peppermint extract in this recipe is optional. If you love a minty cookie, definitely add it. If you prefer a more subtle mint flavor, you can omit it.
Quick Tip
Peppermint cookies are not a great candidate for the freezer because when you thaw them, the peppermint pieces will get sticky.
Recipe FAQs
The easiest (and cleanest!) way to crush candy canes is to unwrap them, then place them in a heavy duty resealable plastic bag. Use the flat end of a meat mallet or a rolling pin to lightly crush the candy canes, then open the bag and pour the candy into your mixing bowl.
Peppermint cookies contain butter, flour, sugar, peppermint flavor and crushed peppermints or candy canes.
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Flavor Variations
These cookies are delicious as-is, but you can customize some of the ingredients to suit your tastes.
- Chocolate: Instead of white chocolate, try using dark chocolate or milk chocolate chunks. You can also use peppermint chocolate such as Andes mints or even peppermint bark.
- Peppermint: No candy canes on hand? Use some crushed peppermint candy rounds instead.
- Oreos: While this recipe calls for regular flavored Oreos, there are so many different Oreos, especially around the holidays! Try using a cookie with mint or chocolate filling.
I love to bring these cookies to holidays because they’re really a unique offering, and I always get so many requests for the recipe! I make them every year and I’m sure you will too once you give this recipe a try.
More Christmas Treats
Peppermint Patties Recipe
11 mins
Peppermint Brownies
1 hr 10 mins
Red Velvet Cookies
35 mins
Reindeer Chow
11 mins
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Peppermint Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 drop pure peppermint extract optional if you like your cookies to have a more pronounced mint flavor
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3.4 ounce box instant vanilla pudding mix
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup Oreos chopped
- 1 cup white chocolate chips or chunks cut from a bar of white chocolate
- 1/2 cup crushed candy canes or peppermints
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.
- Place the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of a mixer. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the eggs, vanilla extract and peppermint extract (if using). Beat until combined.
- Add the flour, salt, pudding mix and baking soda to the bowl. Mix on low speed until just combined.
- Fold in 3/4 of the Oreos, white chocolate and candy canes.
- Take 2 tablespoons of dough and roll it into a ball. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Place the balls of dough 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. You will need to bake the cookies in batches.
- Press the remaining Oreos, candy canes and white chocolate onto the tops of the balls of dough.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until light brown at the edges.
- Cool the cookies on the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Repeat the baking process with the remaining dough.
- Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Notes
- Keep your Oreo cookies in larger pieces – if you chop them too finely your cookies will turn gray.
- I use chopped white chocolate bar versus chips because I like a chunkier cookie. Also, white chocolate baking bars are often made with real cocoa butter and taste better than white chocolate chips, which are often made with palm oil.
- After you’ve rolled your cookie dough into balls, you can press some pieces of Oreo, chocolate and candy cane on top for a nice presentation.
If I wanted to add some cocoa powder to these how much would you recommend I add? These sound so yummy!
You could do 1/4 cup! You may need to reduce the amount of flour.
These are great!!! I didn’t put the peppermint extract in it because I don’t like it that much, but did everything else and it turned out so good! It’s like Christmas in cookie form!
How do you keep the candy canes from melting in the cookie dough? I used mini candy canes, maybe I need larger ones so the stripes are still visible when done cooking?
You can make your candy cane pieces a little bigger, they’re less likely to melt that way!
Have you tried freezing these? I’m not sure how the oreos would fair? I like to do most of my Christmas baking ahead of time…
I don’t think this one would be a great candidate for the freezer only because the peppermint would likely get soft and sticky upon thawing.
Saving this for the holidays! Looks so good
These look so great! I can’t wait to try them myself! My daughter is so excited she wants to help with making them! Thank you for posting this recipe
Feed me peppermint cookies with white chocolate and I will be your friend for life, haha! These look so chewy and yum.
oh wow what an amazing mash up of the best things – peppermint and chocolate cookies!
These cookies look so fun and festive! My hubby loves Oreos and white chocolate, and he’d go nuts for these!
I brought these to a cookie exchange and everyone wanted the recipe !
My daughters and I enjoy baking all kinds of cookies this time of year. They make great presents. I am always looking for new recipes.
These look like a great cookie for all the hundreds of cookie exchanges this time of year. I love bringing new cookies.
I’m glad you added the warning about the freezer. I don’t get a lot of time to bake, so I tend to freeze extras. Great recipe.
I love making all kinds of unique cookies as gifts at Christmas time. Thank you for sharing a great recipe!
What a delicious mix of flavors. These will be perfect for the holidays with the peppermint and of course, you can’t go wrong with adding Oreo cookie.
Oh my, these cookies look so good! I’m having an open house on Christmas and this would be a perfect treat for the guests! Thank you for sharing this. 🙂
These look so good! It’s like all my favorite cookies in one. I am going to make these soon.
What a great idea! Thanks for much for the idea! These have so many yummy ingredients, and the pudding would make them even lovlier! I made chocolate chip and candy cane cookies this morning…..the candy cane bits that ran out while cooking were so stretchy…it was awesome!