Peppermint Cookies
This was an experiment. It sort-of worked. I wanted cookies that looked like the round peppermint candies and tasted like peppermint cookies. They sort-of look like the candy and they sort-of taste of peppermint.
To get the red and white swirl, I dyed half the dough red, rolled out a red layer and white layer, laid one atop the other, rolled it up, then sliced the cookies off the roll.
I figured standard cookie-cutter dough would work because that’s meant to be rolled out. I used the Joy of Cooking recipe. I don’t like it, so I’m not reproducing it, here. They didn’t roll out well – the dough cracked. The layers did not stick together well; the additional flour needed to roll it out prevented the layers from sticking to each other. Perhaps a brush with water before layering would have helped. They don’t taste good; they’re not awful, but they’re very bland.
The “frosting” is white-chocolate ganache. It’s definitely more opaque than I expected. I thought it would be more of a transparent glaze. One can see the swirled colors from the bottom and when one bites a cookie in half, but not from the top. I put on a thin coat for that transparent effect, which had the unfortunate side-effect of making it too little to taste.
The stuff dusted on top is ground peppermint candy. It too is almost tasteless. If I aim for peppermint flavor again, I will use peppermint extract. It’s a thick coating because I put them in the broiler in an attempt to get the ganache to flow evenly across the top. I ended up toasting it, which actually tastes pretty good. The extra dusting was to cover that up.
Overall not bad, but not worth the effort.
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