While baking some cookies for a review recently, I wondered if anyone had ever made chocolate eggnog candy cane cookies, and I couldn’t find such a recipe – so I came up with my own! I affectionally call these “Freakin’ Christmas Cookies” but you can call them whatever you’d like! I hope you enjoy them!
Freakin’ Cookies, aka Chocolate Eggnog Candy Cane Cookies
Ingredients
Dry
- 1 ¾ cups flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Wet
- ¾ cup salted butter, cut into chunks and softened on the counter (about 61°F)
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup full-fat eggnog
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp rum extract
Mix-ins
- ¾ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ cup crushed candy canes (plus a little extra for topping)
Drizzle
- ½ cup white chocolate chips, melted
- ½ tsp neutral oil
Directions
Prep the candy canes
I placed small candy canes into a Ninja Express Chop and pulsed until most pieces were about ¼ inch or smaller. I then dumped the crushed candy through a mesh strainer to remove the powder and manually picked out any pieces larger than about ¼ inch. I repeated this until I had about ½ cup of usable chunks, plus a little extra for topping at the end.
Mix dry ingredients
In a medium bowl, whisk together:
- 1 ¾ cups flour
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
Set aside.
Cream butter and sugars
Using a hand mixer on medium speed, beat together:
- ¾ cup salted butter, softened
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
Mix until lighter and fluffy. The mixture will be thicker than expected, which is normal.
Add egg and flavorings
Beat in the egg.
Add the eggnog, vanilla extract, and rum extract.
Mix until smooth.
Add dry ingredients
Add the dry mixture in 2 to 3 additions, mixing on low speed.
Because the dough is very thick, you may need to briefly increase mixer speed to fully incorporate.
Fold in chocolate chips and candy cane pieces
Fold in the chocolate chips and ½ cup candy cane chunks by hand.
Reserve a small amount of candy cane pieces for topping later.
Chill the dough
For my first batch, I chilled the dough for about 2 hours, which turned out to be longer than necessary.
For my second batch, I chilled it for about 30 minutes, then let it sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before baking.
That timing worked better.
Form the cookies
Wearing gloves, I rolled the dough by hand into balls about 1 to 1.5 inches in diameter.
The dough has an almost fudge-like consistency.
Place the dough balls onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake and cool
Bake at 350°F.
- First batch: baked 12 minutes, rested on the baking sheet 5 minutes. The bottoms were slightly overdone.
- Second batch: baked 9 minutes, rested on the baking sheet 3 minutes. These came out much better.
After resting, transfer cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
White chocolate drizzle (after cookies are fully cooled)
Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave in 10-second increments, stirring between each.
Add about ½ tsp of oil to thin the chocolate for easier drizzling.
Drizzle over the cooled cookies using a spoon, then immediately sprinkle with the reserved candy cane pieces.