Peppermint Shortbread Cookies #GreatFoodBloggerCookieSwap

These Peppermint Shortbread Cookies will be the star of any cookie platter. They’re all dressed up and ready to party!

I can’t take credit for coming up with this recipe, but I wish I could. I found the recipe for these Peppermint Shortbread Cookies in the holiday baking issue (2014) of Taste of Home Magazine.

When I spied these beauties in the magazine, I knew in a moment that these would be the perfect cookies for The 4th Annual 2014 Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap (#fbcookieswap). Yum! I was right!!!

What is the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap you ask? Good question! It’s when a remarkable number of food bloggers from all around the world come together to raise money for The Childhood Cancer Foundation and Cookies for Kids Cancer.

We do this by each donating $4 to participate. We bake and mail three dozen cookies to three separate bloggers (1 dozen each blogger) that we’ve been assigned to. Then we all post our recipes on the very same day (Today, December 15th) by blog post for our fellow food bloggers and our readers to enjoy.

It’s a great deal of fun and is a great way to be active in the food blogging community and make new friends all for a rewarding cause. In return we each receive 3 dozen delicious cookies in the mail from other members of our food blogging community. Win! Win!

For additional information and to learn how to join in the fun next year, click HERE.

PEPPERMINT SHORTBREAD COOKIES   {PRINT THIS RECIPE}
Makes:    3 1/2 dozen      Prep Time: 40 minutes (includes chill time)   Bake Time: 10-12 minutes

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
red and green food coloring
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup crushed peppermint candies

-Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the peppermint and vanilla extract.
-Slowly beat in the flour and salt until completely incorporated.
-Divide the dough in half. Tint half with the red food coloring and the other half with the green. *Note – if the dough is too crumbly, add 1-2 tablespoons of cold water per color to the dough and blend.
-Flatten each disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes.
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-On a lightly floured surface, roll each chilled disc out to approximately 1/4″ thickness. Use a round, floured cookie cutter (1 1/2″ in diameter) to cut out as many circles as possible. *Note – the scraps can be re-rolled and cut in the same fashion.
–Place the cut cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet approximately 1″ apart.
-Bake in a preheated oven to 10-12 minutes, rotating the sheets half way through the baking process.
-Remove the cookies to a baking rack to cool completely.
-In a microwaveable bowl, melt the chocolate morsels and the butter on medium temperature, stirring often.
-Dip half of each cooled cookie into the melted chocolate; allowing the excess to run off and then sprinkle the crushed candies on top of the chocolate. Place the cookies on parchment paper or wax paper and allow to sit until the chocolate is set.
-Serve and enjoy!

Cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the extracts and the flour. Divide the dough in half, Color half the dough with red food coloring and half the dough with green food coloring.

Flatten each dough and wrap in plastic wrap. Freeze for about 30 minutes. Roll the dough out to 1/4″ thickness and cut with a 1 ½” round cookie cutter. Place on baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Dip half of each baked cookie into the melted chocolate and sprinkle with crushed peppermint candies. Place on wax paper or parchment paper and allow to sit until the chocolate is completely set.

After my cookies were baked, decorated and bagged, it was time to package them in their boxes and ship them off to the 3 fellow food bloggers I was assigned to. Here is how I packaged my cookies with burlap ribbon along with some festive red and green ribbon for a little shimmer and pizazz! This year I shipped to: Heidi from Awesome with Sprinkles, Rebecca of Bake N’ Quilt, and Alice of Dining with Alice. I hope you enjoyed the cookies, ladies 🙂

And these are the wonderfully delicious cookies I received this year…From Sara of The Chef Next Door I received ~  Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies with Chocolate Hazelnut Filling:

And from Leslie of My Kitchen Is Open I received these ~  Biscoff Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies with Pecans:

I can’t tell you how exciting it was to open each one of these boxes and the delicious aromas that exploded from the boxes each and every time! Thank you very much ladies! They were all delicious and arrived in perfect condition!

At this time a big Thank You goes out to our two wonderful coordinators of this annual event: Julie of The Little Kitchen and Lindsay of Love and Olive Oil, and of course to our brand partners that helped by matching our donation dollars up to $3,000 ~  Dixie Crystals, OXO, California Olive Ranch and Shelia G’s Brownie Brittle.


Incidentally, the grand total that was raised this year’s Food Blogger Cookie Swap is…(drum roll please)…$12,335.00. That is amazing and something that is truly worth celebrating!


I’m excited to have been a part of this Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and am thrilled to have played a small part in raising money for such a wonderful cause!! Naturally I needed to coordinate this cookie recipe with my hand painted stand mixer Christmas themed wine glass. Cheers to baking for a good cause!

If there is ever anything I can paint for you please don’t hesitate to contact me or visit my shop. Custom orders are always welcome and I can work from any photo or description you send my way! Kudos Kitchen by Renée ~ Where food, art and fun collide on a regular basis! Until we bake again,