Super soft and buttery sugar cookies frosted with a light and creamy peppermint frosting and topped with chopped peppermint chocolates and shimmery sprinkles.
I recommend that for any flavors that transfer, like my chewy gingerbread, chocolate peppermint, etc.
How To Make Peppermint Sugar Cookies
These are a little less complicated than some of my other frosted cookies like my gorgeous Tiramisu cookie babies and frosted s’mores cookies.
We have two parts:
Buttery Cookie Base – simple creamed butter cookie dough made with just egg whites and no egg yolks because I wanted them to be more pale and lighter in texture.
Peppermint Frosting – I used a simple American Buttercream recipe for this and just added vanilla bean paste and peppermint extract.
The Sugar Cookie
First were going to make the simple, creamed butter, cookie dough.
Cream the butter and sugar together firstbeat in the eggs, vanilla and sour creamfold in the dry ingredients, just until they’re fully combined.
Then we’re going to shape our cookie dough. Refrigerate the cookie dough balls for just a few if it’s too sticky too roll.
Scoop out the cookie dough onto a cookie sheetroll cookie dough into a smooth ball and flatten into a thick disc bake cookies just until they start to catch color and no longer look wet
Peppermint Frosting
A super simple American buttercream flavored with vanilla bean paste and peppermint extract.
Start by beating the butter and sugar together until they’re well combined. Then we mix in our cream, vanilla and peppermint.
My favorite vanilla right now is by Heilala. This vanilla powder is also really good. Any peppermint extract works fine.
butter beat with sugarsmooth out the frosting to get some of the air out so it pipes more smooth
To make them look cute, I flip them over onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze until they’re set. Then peel them off and decorate.
pipe frosting on top of cookiesplace the cookies upside down on a cookie sheet and freeze until firmpeel cookies off the parchment sheet and flip back over
TIP: I recommend topping it with chopped peppermint chocolates, like Andes Peppermint Chocolates, as opposed to peppermint candies because the candies tend to bleed once they come in contact with any moisture from the frosting.
top cookies with peppermint chocolates and shimmery sprinles
How To Store Cookies
These cookies are able to stay covered at room temperature for a couple of days but if it’s any longer, I would keep it in the fridge.
Make sure to store them airtight so they don’t dry out.
The cookies can also be frozen for a few weeks, just thaw at room temperature for a couple of hours before serving.
Super soft and buttery sugar cookies frosted with a light and creamy peppermint frosting and topped with chopped peppermint chocolates and shimmery sprinkles.
Preheat oven to 325F (163C) convection (can do conventional if you don’t have convection but mine get too dark on the bottom).
Place the butter and sugar into a medium-large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.
227 g salted butter room temperature, 200 g granulated sugar
Use an electric mixer to beat them together for 2-3 minutes, until they’re pale and fluffy, make sure to scrape the edge of the bowl too.
Then add the sour cream, egg white, and vanilla and beat together for another minute or so, until it’s smooth and has lightened in color.
56 g sour cream, 2 large egg whites, 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
Add the flour, salt and baking powder and fold the cookie dough just until there are no more streaks of flour left.
315 g cake flour spooned and leveled, 1/2 tsp fine sea salt, 1 Tbsp baking powder
Scoop 16 cookie dough balls, just a smidge under 2 ounces each and place them on a cookie sheet. Refrigerate the tray for 10 minutes or just until they’re slightly less sticky so you can roll them into even balls. Roll them so the sides are smooth and then gently press down on them so they’re more like a slightly flattened disc.
Bake one sheet on the middle rack for 6ish minutes, remove, bang on the counter, use a round biscuit cutter to scoot them around so they’re round and return to the oven for another 6ish minutes, just until the edges/bottoms are starting to look like they might get golden and the tops are no longer wet.
Remove from the oven, give it another quick tap on the counter & scoot them around again so they’re perfectly round.
If the tops are puffed up/domed, I like to gently press down on them a little with a flat bottom cup so that I can better frost them.
Allow them to rest for at least 10 minutes on the pan before transferring off of the cookie sheet.
Peppermint Frosting
For the buttercream, beat the butter with an electric mixer for 1-2 minutes, making sure to scrape the edge of the edge of the bowl so all the butter is pale and fluffy.
113 grams unsalted butter room temperature
Add the powdered sugar, salt, peppermint and vanilla extract and mix on low speed just until the sugar is combined. Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat for a couple of minutes, making sure to scrape the edge of the bowl again so it’s all smooth and fluffy.
240 grams powdered sugar, Tiny pinch of fine sea salt, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp peppermint extract
With the mixer going on low speed or in 3-4 increments, slowly add in the heavy whipping cream and beat for another 1-2 minutes until it’s nice and fluffy.
30 mL heavy whipping cream
Use a piping bag fit with a round tip to pipe the frosting onto the cooled cookie and then flip them over onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Freeze the sheet for 15-30 minutes and then peel the cookies off so the tops are flat. Sprinkle with crushed peppermint chocolates and edible sparkles!
chocolate peppermint chocolates*
Notes
*I used crushed candy canes/peppermint candies on these before but those tend tot bleed so I switched to using chopped peppermint chocolates.
