Is your Christmas baking done yet? Mine’s not, but my mother and I are getting together this week to finish it up. I have baked one batch of cookies so far, using a recipe I developed last year, and they are my favorites. Here, let me tempt you…. They are chocolate cookies. With chocolate chips. Dipped in chocolate. If that hasn’t convinced you, how about a coating of crushed candy canes? They are fantastic! (Unless you’re Jo and don’t like peppermint.) I’m hungry just thinking about them, but fortunately I’ve got a couple sitting here to snack on while I tell you how to make your own.

Ingredients:

To bake the cookies:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. In a large mixer bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together, then add to the wet mixture, mixing until well blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto un-greased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool one minute on cookie sheet then transfer to wire cooling rack to cool completely.

At this point, they will look good, but don’t eat them yet. They’re going to get better. Way better.

To decorate the cookies:

Okay, you’ve got the chocolate cookies with chocolate chips in them. But these are TRIPLE chocolate cookies, so we need one more chocolate! While the cookies are cooling, grab your chocolate chips or candy melts and melt them in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler (and really, why bother?) just put a glass bowl on top of a pot of simmering water, like I do. It’s a much easier and cheaper solution!

Unwrap your candy canes and put them into a plastic bag, then crush them to smithereens with a hammer, rolling pin, or heavy saucepan. Oh, and before you open all those candy canes, check one to make sure they are peppermint flavor. I made this recipe once and learned too late that the traditional-looking candy canes I were using were actually cherry flavored. Ugh! There’s just so much variety in candy canes these days, so read the label to be sure.

Now dip each cookie halfway into the melted chocolate and let any excess drip back into bowl.

Then sprinkle some of your lovely candy cane bits onto the melted chocolate.

Place the gloriously decorated cookies on parchment paper and let them set until the chocolate is hardened.

When cooled completely, go ahead and pour a glass of milk and eat one. Or two. Okay, maybe three. It’s Christmas, and I won’t tell. Or pack them into a pretty tin and give them to friends and neighbors.

Nothing says Christmas like candy canes. Yum!