Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Bites

Hello Design Dazzle readers! My name is Jenn and I blog over at Clean and Scentsible. I am so excited to be back again for Toni’s Chrsitmas Wonderful series! This is my third year joining in and I always look forward to seeing all of the amazing projects shared!

One of the many things that I love about Christmas is all of the Christmas baking. These chocolate peppermint shortbread cookies add a pretty touch to any cookie platter and are one of my favorites. They just taste like Christmas!

Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Bites

INGREDIENTS
Cookies

1 cup flour
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
½ cup butter

Chocolate Ganache

6 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate,chopped
½ cup whipping cream

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325F.
In a medium bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and cocoa powder. Using a pastry blender {or your hands!}, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs and starts to cling together {this may take a little while}. Roll into a ball kneading until smooth.
On a floured surface, roll out dough into approximately ½ inch thickness. Use a small rectangular cookie cutter or slice into 1 inch x 2 inch rectangles. Place onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until just firm in the center. Cool cookies on a wire rack.
In a medium saucepan, bring whipping cream just to boiling over medium heat. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Let stand for 5 minutes and then stir until smooth. Cool for 15 minutes before using.
Place 6 peppermint candies into a Ziploc bag and crush into small pieces.
Drizzle the chocolate ganache over the tops of the cookies and then sprinkle with the peppermints.

The recipe makes approximately 2 dozen cookies. The plain cookies can be frozen in an airtight container between sheets of waxed paper for up to 3 months. Thaw when ready to use and then decorate with the ganache and peppermint.

Thank-you so much to Toni for having me today! If you get a chance, I would love to have you drop in at Clean and Scentsible to say hello and check out some of my other fun Christmas projects.

Hot Cocoa Bar / Rustic Christmas Wreath / Grinch Oreo Pops