Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies are cookies that appear in The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays.

Official description
When I make these delicious delights at Christmastime, I commit the cardinal sin of gluttony. Repeatedly. Until they're all gone and I'm staring at an empty platter.

But wait! Before you condemn me to whatever wretched place people who commit one of the deadly sins at Christmastime go (that made no grammatical sense), please hear me out. I have a really good excuse!

They are really, really yummy.

I mean it. There's something about the slightly soft chocolate cookie, coated with white chocolate and dipped in crushed mints. One is never enough. Two is never enough. How many does this recipe make again? Thirty-two? Well okay, then. Thirty-two isn't enough either!

But then again, I might have issues.

Recipe

 * 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
 * 1 cup powdered sugar
 * 1 egg
 * 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
 * 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
 * 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
 * 1 teaspoon salt
 * Large handful of both red and green peppermints
 * 4 ounces (4 squares) almond bark or white baking chocolate

Add the butter and powdered sugar to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

Beat them together until the mixture is nice and smooth.

Mix in the egg and vanilla.

Add the cocoa powder, flour, and salt...

And mix just until the dough comes together. Press a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the dough and refrigerate it for a couple of hours.

While the dough is chillin' away, unwrap the candies and place them in separate plastic bags.

Grab a rolling pin and release you rage upon the mints. You want to crush them! You want to obliterate them! Just think of all the ways they've wronged you!

Throw the crushed mints into separate bowls and set 'em aside.

When the dough is finished chilling, preheat the oven to 375*F. Roll the dough into balls...

Throw the balls onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper or baking mats...

And flatten them slightly with the bottom of a coffee mug or glass. Bake the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes or until just set. Remove 'em from the oven and let 'em cool completely.

While the cookies cool, melt the almond bark in a double boiler or a microwave-safe bowl. Stir until smooth.

One at a time, dip the cookies halfway into the melted almond bark...

And sprinkle the top side generously with the crushed mints, holding the cookies over the bowls to catch the excess. You can mix red and green on the same cookie, or you can do some cookies with just red and some with just green. No one can make that decision but you.

Lay the cookies, sprinkled side up, on parchment paper or a baking mat and allow them to set completely.

Serve them with a few whole mints on the side. You'll absolutely love these.