Boozy Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles

I had a ton of peppermint candies and creme de menthe from making peppermint mocha cupcakes and obviously need to use them up. There was a serious lack of cookies in the apartment and making 2 cupcake batches in less than a week seemed excessive (I cannot have 2 tubs of leftover cake topping/frosting in the fridge), so I decided to make chocolate crinkle cookies with a minty and boozy twist.

Total time: ~45 minutes, includes letting cookies cool and drinking wine and catching up on T.I. and Tiny (best show on VH1 in my humble opinion).

VERDICT: the roommate was pleasantly surprised to see even more treats in the apartment and ate a good portion of them after dinner. She also agreed to share with her coworkers if there were leftovers. I assume it's a good sign that she thinks other people might want in on them. Sadly, the booze bakes out of the cookies, but making a cookie sandwich with some leftover boozy ganache would solve that problem or even a quick boozy buttercream.

Chocolate Peppermint Crinkles

adapted from Real Simple, yields 3-4 dozen cookies (depending on size).

1 1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 salt

1 stick butter

1 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 shot creme de menthe

powdered sugar (for dusting)

crushed peppermint candies (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

2. Cream butter and brown sugar. Beat eggs in, one at a time, then add creme de menthe.

3. Add flour mixture and mix well. The dough should be smooth and pliable, but not elastic like bread dough. Let the dough rest for ~10 minutes in the fridge to making shaping cookies easier. Optional: crush peppermint candies (see peppermint mocha cupcake post) and mix with powdered sugar.

4. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and place on an un-greased cookie sheet. Roll dough in powdered sugar (or peppermint candy dust and powdered sugar). Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cracks form on cookie surface.

5. Let cookies cool and dust with more sugar.