It’s day 3 of AK Cookie Week and today I’m bringing back deliciously rich, dark chocolate, minty fresh cookies with a luscious mint frosting! It’s the holidays and these mint chocolate cookies are here. to. party.
They seriously taste just like a peppermint patty or a mint Oreo. I first made them as mint chocolate sandwich cookies but decided to dial it back a bit with just a frosted cookie.
Obviously, feel free to sandwich two of these babies together for an even more epic combo (I won’t tell).
FREE Ultimate Guide to Cookie Baking
Sign up below and get a FREE printable e-book with my best tips & tricks for baking perfect cookies every time!
What you’ll need to make these mint chocolate cookies
We’re using regular flour, sugar & butter in these mint chocolate cookies, and the peppermint combo with rich dark chocolate is truly out of this world. Here’s what you’ll need to make them:
- Flour: you’ll need regular, all-purpose flour in these cookies.
- Cocoa powder: for that rich chocolate flavor, use a high quality, unsweetened cocoa powder.
- Baking staples: you’ll need baking soda & salt so that the cookies bake properly.
- Butter: we’ll be adding butter in both the cookies themselves and in the mint frosting.
- Sugars: we’re using both brown sugar and regular, granulated sugar to sweeten cookies. You’ll also need powdered sugar for the frosting.
- Eggs: you’ll just need one egg for the cookies.
- Extracts: a little vanilla and peppermint extract give these mint chocolate cookies the perfect flavor. You’ll add some peppermint extract to the frosting as well.
- Milk: feel free to use any milk you’d like to make the frosting nice and creamy.
- Frosting extras: I used natural green food dye in half of the frosting and a bit of red food dye for the other half to give it a festive look. This is optional but looks so cute.
- Toppings: I love topping these cookies with crushed candy canes, chopped up Andes Mints and red & green sprinkles. A fun activity for the kiddos! Mint chips or mini chocolate chips would also be perfect.
Optional swaps
I’d suggest sticking with the recipe as best as possible, but if you don’t have a few ingredients here’s what I suggest:
- Feel free to use vegan butter if you’d like to keep these dairy free. Use dairy free milk in the frosting as well.
- Instead of cocoa powder you can also use cacao powder.
- I haven’t tested these with a flax egg, but I think it would work just fine!
Can I make these gluten free?
Yes! We tested this recipe using this gluten-free measure-for-measure flour and they turned out perfect.
How to make mint chocolate cookies
- Prep your pan. Add parchment paper to a large baking sheet and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl combine all of your dry ingredients and whisk until they’re well-combined.
- Beat together wet ingredients. In a stand mixer, start with the butter and sugar until they’re smooth and creamy, and then add your egg, vanilla & peppermint extract.
- Make your dough. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until just combined and your dough forms. Cover and chill the dough for 30 minutes before baking.
- Scoop & bake. Scoop about 1 tablespoon of dough with a cookie scoop, and place the dough balls 2 inches apart on your baking sheet. Then bake for 10 minutes.
- Cool & frost. While your cookies are cooling, make your mint frosting in your electric mixer (this is the natural food dye that I use! I like doing a red and a green color). Frost each cookie, top with your fav toppings and enjoy!
The fluffiest mint frosting
You’re going to LOVE the flavor of the cool, minty, fluffy frosting on these cookies. Here are a few tips to ensure success with it:
- First, beat together the butter and powdered sugar for about 1 minute on high until combined.
- Then, add in your peppermint extract and 1 tablespoon of milk (if the frosting needs more moisture).
- Choose red or green food dye (this is the natural dye I use and love!) and beat in a few drops to the frosting. Feel free to adjust as you like if you want them more red or green!
- If you like a creamier frosting, simply add a bit more milk.
Freezer-friendly tips
- Freeze the dough. To freeze the dough, simply roll it into individual balls and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Chill the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes. Once the cookie dough balls firm up, transfer them to a reusable freezer-safe bag or container for up to 3 months. When ready to bake, simply bake the mint chocolate cookies as directed. You’ll likely just need to add a few extra minutes of baking time!
- Freeze the baked mint chocolate cookies. You can also freeze your baked mint chocolate cookies for later. Wait for them to cool completely, then transfer them to a reusable freezer-safe bag or container lined with wax or parchment paper. I like to place them in a single layer to avoid any cookies breaking. Cookies will keep well for up to 2 months. Once ready to eat, simply thaw out at room temperature and enjoy. You can freeze them with or without the frosting.
I know I’ll get lots of questions about the natural food dye I used — here is the link once more!
More holiday cookies
- Not Your Mama’s Magic Cookies
- Pistachio, Coffee & Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cream Pies with Fluffy Peanut Butter Filling
- Soft Cut Out Sugar Cookies (gluten free, grain free, paleo friendly)
- Soft Brown Butter Ginger Cookies with Lovely Lemon Icing
- Death by Chocolate Peppermint Cookies
Get all of my cookie recipes here!
I hope you love these amazing mint chocolate cookies! If you make them, be sure to leave a comment & a rating so I know how you liked them. Enjoy, xo!
The
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
Ambitious Kitchen
Cookbook
125 Ridiculously Good For You, Sometimes Indulgent, and Absolutely Never Boring Recipes for Every Meal of the Day
Mint Chocolate Cookies with Mint Frosting
Wonderful mint chocolate cookies with peppermint extract, rich dark chocolate flavor and a delicious, colorful mint frosting. These easy mint chocolate cookies taste just like a peppermint patty! Top with crushed candies and sprinkles for a fun holiday cookie everyone will love.
Ingredients
- Dry ingredients:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Wet ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
- For the mint frosting:
- ¾ cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 ½-2 cups powdered sugar, depending on how sweet you like your frosting
- ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1-2 tablespoons milk, to make the frosting creamy
- Natural green food dye, to color the frosting
- Natural red food dye, to color the frosting
- For toppings:
- Crushed candy canes
- Chopped Andes mints
- Red & green sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Next, add in the egg, vanilla extract, peppermint extract and beat again until well combined smooth and creamy; about 30 seconds longer.
- Add in dry ingredients and mix on medium low until just combined. Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- After chilling the dough, use a cookie scoop to grab about 2 tablespoonsful of dough, then roll dough balls and place on a cookie sheet, leaving at least 2 inches apart from one another.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges begin to set and crackle. Remove and allow cookies to cool for 5-10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. This is important to help the cookies set up and harden around the edges. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Once cookies have completely cooled, they are ready for frosting: in the bowl of an electric mixer, add the softened butter and powdered sugar and beat on high for 1 min. To make plain mint frosting: add in peppermint extract and 1 tablespoon of milk. Beat slowly at first, then increase speed to medium high. Frosting should be nice and creamy, if you want it extra creamy, add another teaspoon of milk and beat again.To make a red and/or green frosting: after beating together the butter, powdered sugar, peppermint extract, and milk, divide the frosting in half between two separate bowls. Add a few drops of green natural food coloring to one bowl, and red food coloring to the other bowl. Whisk the color into each bowl of frosting until well incorporated, adding more drops of food coloring until the desired color is reached.
- Frost cookies and then sprinkle with toppings of choice: crushed candy canes, chopped chocolate or Andes mints or red & green christmas sprinkles! Up to you. Makes approximately 24 cookies.
Recipe Notes
To make dairy free: feel free to use vegan butter if you'd like to keep these dairy free. Use dairy free milk in the frosting as well.
To make gluten free: use this gluten-free measure-for-measure flour instead of regular all purpose flour.
I haven't tested these with a flax egg, but I think it would work just fine!
See the full post for tips, tricks & freezing instructions!
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
This post was originally published on December 3rd, 2020, and republished on November 28th, 2023.
Shop This Post
39 comments
These are a delicious holiday cookie! Very festive looking too! I followed the recipe exactly and used crushed candy canes on top!
Perfect! Glad you loved them!
Just made these and they turned out great! I literally could not wait to try one so as soon as they were cool to the touch I slathered on some icing and 🤤🤤. I followed the recipe exactly. My only issue is my cookies seem to go flatter than normal/what’s in the photo above. What causes that? Should I try to chill the dough balls before I put them in the oven? Did I mix the dough too much?
Love it! And yes feel free to chill the dough a bit next time before baking 🙂
Thank you so much for posting a second mint cookie recipe. Both mint and your cookies generally are my favorites, so I can’t wait to try these. So pretty too!!
Absolutely! So glad you love them both!
These were so good. They puffed up and crackled just like the picture, and are soft and chewy. My frosting isn’t quite as pretty – I think I didn’t cream the butter and sugar enough before adding the milk, because I was so impatient and just wanted to EAT one. I dropped some off to my sisters and their kiddos went crazy for them. Yet another Ambitious Kitchen cookie recipe to add to my list of holiday cookies 🙂
Amazing! Glad you loved them!
AMAZING recipe, these are SO good! Just wanted to say that, despite your recommendation not to use alternative flours, I did use Bob’s Red Mill paleo flour blend instead of all-purpose flour and the cookies turned out great. So they CAN be done gluten-free!
I was going to try them with Bob’s 1:1 this weekend so am glad to see they worked out for you! Thanks for posting!
I’m glad that worked out well! Perfect treat 🙂
They are awesome cookies and they turned out very good. How do I store these cookies with frosting? In airtight container or in fridge?
Feel free to store them at room temp for 2-3 days and then transfer to the fridge 🙂
These are so so good. Mint and chocolate are my favorite combo – I frosted half then put other half unfrosted in the freezer so I could pull one out whenever I wanted and they’re so good cold from the freezer. Gotta make more now!
Love it! Glad you like them!
These are INCREDIBLE. If you leave out the mint, they make the most perfect chocolate cookie. They’re great with the mint and frosting too, but I always have this recipe up my sleeve now for an amazing chocolate cookie
These are delicious, have made them twice now. Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
I loved these cookies so much. I think crushed candy canes are the best topping for these.
So happy to hear that! Such a great treat 🙂
Worked great with GF all purpose flour!! Delicious 🙂
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed!
These are delicious! I followed the recipe exactly. I put the dough in the fridge in between batches in the oven and it helped keep the dough from getting sticky. I made these last Christmas too, and they will definitely be an annual tradition for me. I topped with crushed candy canes last year and went for Andes mints this year, both were great!
Just letting you all know that that gluten free flour works great!! One to one ratio!!
Great! Thanks so much for letting me know!
Can i make these as a bar cookie? Then cut them into small rectangles like a famous mint candy?
Hi! I haven’t personally tried making these as bars but that sounds AMAZING. Let me know if you try that!
These cookies are incredible, but you definitely need to refrigerate the dough before baking. If the dough is at room temperature, they spread and turn out very flat. I refrigerated it between my first and second batches and the second batch was like a different cookie. Also, I found a tablespoon was too big and made each one with a teaspoon. Definitely recommend making them on the smaller side.
I would love to know if these would work with less butter than the recipe calls for. That aside, this is hands-down my favorite chocolate cookie recipe!
Thanks for sharing! I haven’t had that issue (was your butter slightly melted, maybe?) but that’s a great tip. I haven’t tested them with less butter so I can’t be sure, sorry! Glad you enjoy them so much 🙂
You don’t specify in the recipe whether you use salted or unsalted butter. I assume it’s salted because I don’t see any additional salt in the recipe. Correct?
Ooops! I see 1/4 tsp. salt. But my question is the same, Thanks!
Oh yes I usually use salted but feel free to use unsalted if you prefer!
I made these last Christmas and they were amazing. My only issue was how to store them as I couldn’t stack them because of the frosting. Any suggestions or would a drizzle effect also with with candy canes.
Hi! You could definitely do a drizzle/candy cane decoration like these cookies or store them on a plate gently covered with foil 🙂
This recipe is way too dry. I was very disappointed. My family wouldn’t eat it
Hi! Sounds like something went wrong when measuring the ingredients. Here’s how I measure flour to ensure I’m not adding too much/drying out the cookie dough.
These were easy to make and delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
yum yum yum very nice post
I made these cookies for my work holiday potluck. They were easy to make and wow – delicious. I worry when using peppermint extract but these did not taste medicinal. I used gluten free flour for the first time and could not tell the difference. This was my first dessert recipe from this site as I usually only make their dinner recipes but I’ll be back to try more desserts.
Amazing! Hope you find even more desserts here that you love 🙂