Another Levain favorite, the seasonal dark chocolate-peppermint cookie, inspired this riff. We turned down the chocolate flavor (cocoa and semisweet chips instead of dark chocolate) but intensified the mint by processing Starlight mint candies into a fine peppermint sugar that’s creamed with the butter in the dough.

Tips for Making Chocolate-Peppermint Cookies

Keep these helpful Test Kitchen tips in mind when making this copycat cookie recipe.

• Use a food processor to crush the candies. Add candies and pulse until desired texture. Very finely crushed peppermint candies are the texture of sanding sugar. Finely crushed peppermint candies are 1/8- to 1/4-inch chunks.
• The peppermint-sugar coating melts into the cookies quickly as they bake. For an extra dose of holiday cheer, sprinkle additional peppermint chips and mint candies on top during the last couple minutes of baking. Our recipe testers loved adding these Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark Mix-Ins.

How to Make Perfectly Round Cookies

To achieve consistent bakery-style rounds, try this trick with just-baked cookies. Using a 5- to 6-inch round cookie cutter in a swirling motion, shape the edges of the cookie until perfectly round (you aren't getting rid of any part of the cookie edge, but molding edge into a perfect circle). Because the cookies are still warm they're flexible enough to change shape minimally without breaking.

How to Store Chocolate-Peppermint Cookies

To store this peppermint-chocolate cookie recipe, place baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 months.