Buttery, rich peppermint shortbread cookies that everyone in your family will love. Easy preparation — slice and bake!
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: With only six ingredients, they are easy to whip up.
How long it takes: about an hour but that includes 30 minutes chilling time
Equipment you’ll need: mixer, baking sheet, parchment paper
Servings: makes 40 cookies, more or less
This is a sponsored post on behalf of United Dairy Industry of Michigan.
Today I’m bringing you more butter love with one of my favorite types of cookies — shortbread.
It might have a little to do with how easy these cookies are to make (SO easy), but it also has a lot to do with the rich buttery taste and the melt-in-your-mouth texture. I really just adore shortbread. I’ve made a lot of fun versions, some even with cream cheese.
Why You’ll Love Slice-and-Bake Cookies
Make the dough ahead of time. These shortbread cookies are slice-and-bake cookies. Simply put, you can whip up a batch of the dough, form it into a log, and throw it in the fridge or freezer. I have a bunch of these convenient slice and bake cookie recipes.
Bake the cookies when you need them. When you happen to have unexpected guests, all you need to do is slice off what you need, stick them in the oven and voila! Fresh cookies. Everyone will think you’re amazing. And you are!
About These Shortbread Cookies
A simple list of ingredients (butter! flour! sugar! salt!) really lets the flavors of both the butter and the peppermint shine. Peppermint shortbread cookies are great with a cup of coffee or tea. Who knows? Santa might even dig a few with his milk.
What You’ll need
- Butter: Use good-quality unsalted butter for these cookies. Make sure it’s softened or at room temperature.
- Powdered Sugar (Confectioner’s Sugar): Because this sugar is so fine, the cookies just melt in your mouth.
- All-Purpose Flour: I haven’t tried whole wheat flour for these cookies because they just aren’t suited for the hearty quality of whole wheat.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: This baker’s friend really enhances the flavor of the cookie dough.
- Salt: Keeps the cookies from tasting flat.
- Andes Peppermint Crunch Baking Chips: These chips are really the star of the show here. Keep reading for substitutions you can make.
How To Make Peppermint Shortbread Cookies
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla until creamy and smooth. Add the flour and mix just until blended. Fold in the peppermint chips.
Now I realize that not everyone has a stand mixer (or it’s stored in the basement and you don’t feel like hauling it out). You can make the cookie dough with a good hand mixer or even by hand. You’ll probably have to stir the flour in by hand anyways because the dough gets pretty stiff.
On a sheet of parchment paper or waxed paper, form a nice even log, about 12 to 14 inches long (or two logs, 6 to 7 inches long). Wrap the paper around the dough and freeze it for thirty minutes.
Meanwhile, get your oven preheating. After thirty minutes, remove the dough log from the freezer, unwrap it, and slice it into quarter-inch slices. Arrange the slices on a baking sheet and bake them.
Shortbread cookies have a higher amount of butter and a lower amount of sugar than butter cookies or sugar cookies. They are not overly sweet cookies and are fairly dense in texture. They do not contain eggs.
Adding eggs will change the texture of your shortbread. The cookies won’t be as crisp and crumbly.
Shortbread is perfect with most any beverage: coffee, tea, hot cocoa, or even wine. Serve shortbread with homemade eggnog, microwave hot cocoa, or a vanilla bourbon fizz. Shortbread makes good dippers for creamy hot chocolate dip, too.
Make It Your Own
- Like mint with chocolate? I love those thin mint Girl Scout cookies, don’t you? Try drizzling these peppermint cookies with melted chocolate chocolate chips. Or, if you love the peppermint/chocolate connection, check out these peppermint chocolate sugar cookies. They are the easiest cut-out cookies to roll out.
- Can’t find Andes Peppermint Chips? Try their Creme de Menthe chips or substitute English toffee chips.
Baked cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to a week in a tightly covered container or in the freezer for up to a month. Make sure they are completely cool before covering.
Unbaked cookie dough can be stored in the freezer for up to a month, wrapped thoroughly. To bake, remove log from freezer and allow to warm up for a half hour or so. Slice and bake as directed.
More Slice and Bake Cookies
Peppermint Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup Andes peppermint crunch baking chips
Instructions
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Gradually add flour and mix on low until combined. Add Andes baking chips and continue mixing on low until fully combined.
- On wax paper or parchment paper, form into a 12- to 14-inch log and freeze at least 30 minutes or until firm.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Cut the shortbread dough into ¼ -inch slices and bake for 13 to 15 minutes on parchment lined baking sheets.
Notes
- If you want to make these even more festive, dip cookies halfway into melted chocolate and sprinkle with crushed candy canes.
- Dough logs can be frozen for up to one month. Wrap well and label. Allow the logs to warm up at room temperature for a half hour before slicing and baking as directed.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!Disclosure: This post is a collaboration with United Dairy Industry of Michigan. I was paid to develop and photograph this recipe but my love for butter is 100% the real thing.
I felt I needed to contribute something to the holiday bazaar at our new church but little time to be crafty so the bake sale portion was it. What did I make that would be different than others….Peppermint shortbread cookies!! I made the dough ahead and baked off 40 dozen in the two days before the bazaar. Bought food save little boxes with clear lids and red bottoms at the discount store. Made sticker labels and tied a red and white twisted string around the box that contained two dozen of these treasures. In church the next day I was inundated with ladies asking if I was the woman that made those peppermint shortbread cookies! Fast forward… Yesterday I delivered 12 boxes to this year’s bazaar and I was told that was not enough. I had to accept orders because I refused to share the recipe. ( I need that one recipe no one else makes for the bake sale and potlucks!) Thank you for helping me make friends! And these are a family favorite for life!!
I’m so glad they’ve been such a hit! Thank you so much for the review!
I followed this recipe exactly multiple times and the dough is much too dry and crumbly. It doesn’t form or slice well at all for me. I give up.
How are you measuring your flour? It could be that if you’re scooping out your flour, you’re getting too much and making the dough too dry.
I made these with Lindt white chocolate peppermint truffles and they turned out great! I scooped out the inside of the truffle because I was afraid it would make the dough too greasy. If I had more time, I would try decreasing the butter instead. I’ll be experimenting next Christmas! They were delicious.
Sounds like the most delicious experiment! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
I made these today, but substituted crushed candy canes for the Andes chips. I’ve been trying to replicate a favorite recipe of my husbands’s family that has been lost since his grandmother passed. This is super close! Regardless, these were delicious and super easy!
I’m so glad to hear they were a success! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
I am always in search of a perfect peppermint cookie so I’m excited to try these. Do you think it would work to chop up some of the peppermint Hershey kisses in place of the Andes chips (which I cannot find)? Thank you!
That should work! They might be a little more melty, so they might tend to run/melt out, but I think it should work okay.
Can you use this recipe for a decorating Christmas cookie?
I think that would work if you’re planning to do circles. If you want to roll it out and cut shapes, it might not work well for that.
Best cookies ever! Love them. We dress them with drizzled dark chocolate and more peppermint chips.
Love the addition of dark chocolate, yum! I bet that’s pretty, too!
I am known for my Christmas cookie trays I have gifted friends and family for more than 50 years. It’s not unusual for me, an amateur baker, to make 100 dozen or more each year.
I ran across this recipe a couple of years ago and it has become my absolute favorite cookie.
This year, it seems the peppermint baking chips are impossible to find unless I’m willing to spend way more than I care to.
Today, I’m going to do a dress rehearsal for Christmas by making my own baking chips and I found red and green peppermint candies to make them even more festive.
Wish me luck!
That’s a lot of cooking! Sorry to hear you’re having a hard time finding ingredients! Let me know how it goes – good luck!
Um… within 5 minutes of oven departure I ate 3! They are to die for! I was super nervous when the dough appeared crumbly. I decided to use my hands to continue to mix the dough more and it came together beautifully with 2 minutes. These will be on our table (if they aren’t eaten) for many years to come! Thank you, thank you! I bought the chips on Amazon as I couldn’t fine them anywhere else.
Hehehe….that’s a good sign when you’re eating them straight off the pan! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment – I’m glad you liked the cookies!
I don’t own a stand mixer. Is it still possible to make these cookies with a regular hand mixer? This sounds like an easy recipe for a beginner!
That should work just fine!