A little holiday treat

Christmas is my very favorite holiday for various reasons. And one of them is the part that has to do with cooking and baking. Every year, I make the same kind of cookies. I once found the recipe in a Martha Stewart Christmas magazine, and decided to try it out. It was worth it!
If you are a chocolate lover, this is for you.
If you are a peppermint lover, this is for you.
Or if you are just a sugar lover, then this is for you too.
I'm talking about chocolate peppermint cookies. They are one of my absolute favorite Christmas treats! And because I like them so much, and think you would too, I'm going to share the recipe in this post.

♥

You will need:
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cups of sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 large egg
3/4 teaspoon of pure peppermint extract
25 crushed peppermint candies
1 1/2 pounds of white chocolate

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, sift the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. On a separate medium sized bowl, beat the butter and sugar with a mixer on medium- high speed for about a minute. Reduce the mixer's speed and add the egg yolk, the egg, and finally the peppermint extract. Slowly add the flour mixture, and beat together. Make sure all of the ingredients are mixed up well! Refrigerate this dough for at least 1 hour.
3. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured table. Using cookie cutters, (or any round object that can cut), cut out dough circles and set on baking sheets.
4. Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, pretty much till they are dry when you touch them.
5. Crush the peppermint candies till they are almost like dust. (I usually use a food processor, it works fairly well.)

For the chocolate coating:
1. Melt the white chocolate using a heatproof bowl set over a pot of warm, simmering water.
2. Once the chocolate is melted, and you have the baked cookies next to you, dunk them separately into the bowl of chocolate, and when pulling them out, make sure to let the excess drip off.
3. When the chocolate on the cookies is still melted, sprinkle about 1/4 teaspoon of the crushed peppermint candy powder.
4. Once the chocolate has dried, serve the cookies or refrigerate them for about 3 hours.
5. Eat and enjoy :)

It is definitely not a complicated recipe. It's really easy. Probably the *hard* part is when it comes to coating the cookies with the chocolate. At least for me. I'm not the best when it comes to "perfect cookie decorating." My cookies will probably rarely ever have the perfect smooth chocolate covering. But it's still fun. Isn't their flavor what really matters anyway?
Oh, my dad was a little too inspired when he helped me with these pictures. He wanted me to take one of a cookie that he would spin. So just for the fun of it....

 In short, these cookies are just wonderful.
What are your favorite Christmas treats? ♥
-Annie