These cookies are a mashup of two Christmas classics: chocolate crinkle cookies and peppermint bark. They are sweetened with date purée but also have a healthy dose of plant-butter, so they have a supreme fudginess and a caramel-like complexity. The texture lies somewhere between cookie and gooey brownie. After baking they get dunked in white chocolate and sprinkled with crushed candy canes, which, once set, creates a peppermint bark shell around these holiday gems.
Peppermint Bark Brownie Cookies
Yield: 12 cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (8 to 10) medjool dates (packed), pits removed
- ½ cup plant-based butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup white chocolate chips, vegan if you can find ’em
- 2 teaspoons canola or coconut oil
- ½ cup crushed peppermint candy canes (about 10 minis)
Procedure:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a food processor, pulse the dates and butter until they form a sticky paste, scraping the sides down when necessary. There will still be small bits of dates and that’s okay. Add the egg, vanilla, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and blend until combined. Add the flour and cocoa powder and pulse until just combined. Remove the blade and fold in the semisweet chocolate chips.
- Roll the dough into 12 balls (about 40 grams each) and place on the lined baking sheet. Use the bottom of a measuring cup or glass to flatten the cookies (they won’t spread much in the oven on their own). Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until puffy and set around the edges. Don’t overcook; these are fudgy cookies!
- Cool on the baking sheet for five minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Don’t clean up the prepared sheet; you’ll need it again.
- While the cookies cool, place the white chocolate chips and coconut oil in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir, then continue to microwave in 15-second increments (stirring in between) until the chocolate is completely melted.
- Dip each cookie partially into the white chocolate mixture and transfer back to the lined baking sheet; sprinkle some crushed candy cane over the white chocolate. Let the chocolate set before eating (you can expedite this in the fridge) for the full peppermint bark experience.
Notes and Substitutions:
- The two most common dates you’ll find at the grocery store are medjool and deglet noor, with the latter being firmer and drier, but still sweet. For these cookies, and any recipe where you use date purée, medjools will give you the moisture you need. Deglet noors, however, are great for folding into cookies, muffins, or anywhere you want to preserve the structural integrity of the date.
- We used Pascha white chocolate baking chips.
