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Epicurious
Gourmet

Chocolate Peppermint Stars

4.5

(5)

Image may contain Food Dessert Chocolate Confectionery Sweets Fudge Biscuit Cookie Icing Cake Creme and Cream
Chocolate Peppermint StarsChris Gentile

If you've been looking for a chocolate sugar cookie that doesn't wimp out, delivering the dark chocolate hit you crave, this is the one for you. The thin coating of melted bittersweet chocolate, along with a festive sprinkle of crushed candy canes, only enhances the depth of flavor inherent in the cookie's deep brown color.

Cooks' Notes:

•If you want a real hit of peppermint, replace the vanilla in the Buttery Sugar Cookie dough recipe with 1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract.
•For the cleanest edges, keep freezing or chilling the dough between the sheets of wax paper whenever it gets soft, and freeze or chill the cut-out cookies before baking them.
•To melt chocolate successfully: Keep chocolate from coming in contact with even the smallest amount of water. Chop the chocolate first, then put it in a dry metal bowl and set the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Heat the chocolate, stirring occasionally, until it is smooth. Alternatively, you can heat it in a microwave-safe bowl. Put the chopped chocolate in the bowl and microwave it at 50% power at 30-second intervals, checking it and stirring it, each time, until it is smooth.
•Cookies keep in an airtight container in single layers, separated by wax paper, in a cool place, 5 days.

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