White Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Prepare

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Stir together dry ingredients

1. In a smaller mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Whisk to combine, then set aside.

"Cream" the butter and sugars

1. To a large mixing bowl, add the softened butter, granulated sugar, and light brown sugar. Using a hand mixer, beat on LOW for about 30 seconds (or until the ingredients are starting to stick together), then increase speed to MED and beat for about 1-2 minutes, or until everything is fully combined. **This process is called creaming the fat and sugar, but there is no cream in this recipe**

Add remaining wet ingredients

1. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract, and beat on LOW until combined.

Combine wet and dry ingredients

1. To the mixing bowl with the wet ingredients, add the combined dry ingredients from the smaller bowl. Beat on LOW until things are just combined and you don't see any streaks of flour.

Stir in add-ins

1. Add white chocolate chips, and half of the crushed peppermint candy, reserving the other half.

Scoop dough and bake

1. Use a 1.5 Tbsp cookie scoop to scoop dough, then roll into a ball with your hands. Press the top side of each dough ball into the reserved crushed peppermint candy, then add to prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 - 3 inches of space between each cookie.
2. **If you don't have a cookie scoop, roll balls of dough about 1.5 - 1.75 inches in diameter.**
3. Bake in preheated oven for about 9 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are starting to turn golden brown. They'll look soft and underdone in the center, but that's okay!
4. **For the best results, bake one baking sheet of cookies at a time, in the middle of the center rack of your oven.**
5. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes. The cookies may look more puffed up when you remove them from the oven, and sort of deflate as they cool.
6. **Letting them sit on the baking sheet allows them to gently finish baking and will make sure they're not overcooked and crumbly.**
7. After they've cooled on the baking sheet, remove them to a wire rack to finish cooling.