Chocolate mint surprise cookies are a long-time family favorite and no wonder: each cookie is a small mint chocolate present wrapped in sweet dough and glittering sugar. Besides being delicious these little bites are so easy! They make for a fantastic “first cookie for Santa” that you can bake with young kids who aren’t yet dexterous enough to manage a spatula or piping bag. They are also the perfect bake for exhausted parents who still want the satisfaction of decorating cookies with their kids but without the headache of royal icing and food coloring.

Don’t get me wrong, I love baking and decorating cutout cookies with my kids during the holidays. But without careful planning, a ton of patience, and acceptance of the fact that things are going to get really messy, iced cutout cookies and kids can be a disaster. For those of you who do not need this stress during an already bustling time of year, I offer these as a tasty alternative. With a simple dough and easy formation, kids can help from start to finish without major spills or elaborate steps. My kids love to count the chocolate wafers into pairs, shape the dough, and roll them in the green and red sugar. With a little Christmas music playing in the background, chocolate mint surprise cookies are about as relaxing (and tasty) as holiday cookies with kids can get.

Here are a few tips on this recipe: if you can, make the dough a few days in advance and leave it in the fridge. I recommend this for a couple of reasons. First, the dough is easier to work with while cold, so chilling it well before shaping and keeping it chilled between batches helps the dough to form more easily around the chocolate wafers. Second, this recipe makes a ton of cookies (about 64), so you may prefer to spread out the baking over a couple of days. This will help to avoid rolling fatigue and ensure a consistent stream of freshly baked goodness throughout the Christmas season.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tsp. baking soda

• 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 TBSP. milk

• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

• Red and green decorating sugar for rolling

• 1 12oz. package dark chocolate mint candy melts

Method:

1. Use a fork to stir the flour, soda, and salt together in a large bowl.

2. Cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix well, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the milk and vanilla and mix well.

3. In two or three pours, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until fully combined. Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour or overnight.

4. Preheat the oven to 375ºF, and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

5. Remove half of the dough from the refrigerator and leave the other half to chill. Place two wafers with their bottoms together. Use a spoon to break off a small piece of dough and form it around the two wafers; you should only use enough dough to cover the chocolate completely. Roll one side of the cookie in decorating sugar, and place them evenly apart on a baking sheet.

6. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the cookies are puffed and lightly browned around the edges. Leave them on the pan for five minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.