Easy Peppermint Bark Cookies

My Easy Peppermint Bark Cookies combine two of our holiday family favorites – sugar cookies and peppermint bark! What could be better?! 

A couple of weeks back, my girls begged me to buy peppermint bark and cookies during a shopping trip. I didn’t buy either that day, but last week I was picking up some Betty Crocker® Cookie Pouches at Walmart and while deciding how to decorate the cookies, it occurred to me that I could add a layer of peppermint bark! Walmart had at least 2 displays of the Betty Crocker® Cookie Pouches, in addition to the baking aisle. I picked up a few pouches to have on hand as the busyness of the holidays draw near. Its easy when you need to whip up a batch of cookies at the last minute and is a real time saver!

Fast forward a week since I came down with the flu that night and never did any baking. I am finally feeling better this weekend and decided to make the peppermint bark cookies and lets just say I have quite the fan club today!

Easy Peppermint Bark Cookies

• 1 Pouch Better Crocker® Sugar Cookie mix
• 1 Stick Butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 egg
• 1 TBSP Water
• 18 Creme de Menthe Chocolate Candies
• 1/4 Cup White Chips
• 1-2 Candy Canes, crushed (or peppermint hard candies)
• 1 Square of Chocolate Bark Candy Coating

Yield: 18 Cookies (You could make them smaller, but I wanted larger cookies)

Preheat oven according to package directions (375 deg)

In a large bowl, beat the egg, water and butter together until smooth. Slowly add in the sugar cookie mix and combine until a soft dough forms.  I use a cookie scoop to make evenly sized cookies, but you can also roll the dough into about 1 inch balls. (Before I got the scoop, I would scoop out the dough with TBSP measuring spoon that I coated with cooking spray to keep the size even)

Bake cookies for about 10 minutes, according to package directions. While baking, unwrap the creme de menthe chocolates and set them aside. Then unwrap the candy cane(s) and crush them in a plastic zip bag.

As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, place a chocolate candy in the center of each one. Allow to sit for a few minutes, but I was in a hurry, so I actually popped the pan back in the oven (which was turned off by now) for about 30-45 seconds. The chocolate candy softened right up. You will now spread the melted chocolate over the cookie with a butter knife or even the back of a spoon, to coat the top of the cookie. Now I forgot to snap a photo of this step, but you can see an example here in one of my older posts. 

After the chocolate is spread over each cookie, sprinkle the crushed candy cane over the top of each cookie.

The cookies now need to cool completely. The chocolate also needs to set and firm up. I would wait at least an hour, though I waited about 3 hours. (No particular reason other than I had errands to run.)  Melt the white chips in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second intervals, stirring in between. It should not take more than 1 minute to melt 1/4 cup of white chips. Stir with a fork until smooth. Drizzle the melted white chocolate over the cookies in multiple directions. Then do the same with the chocolate bark. Allow both layers of drizzled chocolate to firm up before removing from the baking sheet.

Store in an airtight container. These Peppermint Bark Cookies are probably one of the best cookies I’ve made in awhile! Very big hit! I’m going to make them again for a holiday gathering and I know we’ll find a few more reasons to make them after that! I think they’d even be great for Valentine’s Day too.

So who says holiday family baking traditions can’t be “semi-homemade”? We are a busy family and while its great to pull out the flour and grandma’s old recipes, but you know what? I want to spend more time enjoying my family and our time together, than I do in the kitchen. I have teens and we’ve become more aware than ever that their time at home is limited. We love traditions and we love the holidays, but we love our time together more! Remember, Betty Crocker® Cookie Pouches only take 10 minutes to bake! Grab a few cookie pouches from Walmart to keep on hand through this holiday season! I’ve noticed new flavors that I haven’t seen before! Which Betty Crocker® Cookie Pouch variety will you try next? Let me know in the comments!

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