Oreo Peppermint Crunch Cookies
These easy Oreo Peppermint Crunch Cookies get a holiday twist from chocolate cookies and peppermint chips. They will disappear as fast as you make them.
These easy Oreo Peppermint Crunch Cookies get a holiday twist from chocolate cookies and peppermint chips. They will disappear as fast as you make them.
- Carbohydrate 19.4234730150295 g
- Cholesterol 15.6917875726937 mg
- Fat 9.21834736988496 g
- Fiber 0.52499998609225 g
- Protein 1.50302653665557 g
- Saturated Fat 4.57219791711711 g
- Serving Size 1 1 cookie (35g)
- Sodium 182.936453203515 mg
- Sugar 18.8984730289373 g
- Trans Fat 0.699812445918653 g
- Calories 166 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine the cake mix, butter, egg, extracts, and cream cheese. Beat until a soft dough forms. Stir in the cookie chunks, peppermint crunch pieces and chocolate chips gently. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
- Scoop or roll the dough into 24 balls. Bake on a cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Do not over bake. The cookies will be very soft and look undone. Let them sit on the hot cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then gently remove them with a spatula to a piece of wax paper on the counter.
- Very gently tap the tops of the cookies with the bottom of a flat spatula to even out the tops. Let them sit until completely cool. Store in a sealed container. Makes 24 cookies.
Removing these cookies from the oven while they appear underbaked prevents a chalky interior crumb. Bakers frequently leave them in the heat too long, destroying the moisture provided by the cream cheese. Achieving the correct balance requires strict adherence to timing and temperature controls.
The Science of Soft-Batch Baking
Incorporating cream cheese into a cake-mix base shifts the fat-to-protein ratio, creating a delicate structure that demands refrigeration. Chilling the dough for 30 minutes solidifies the butter and fat globules, slowing down the rate at which the cookies spread across the sheet pan at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Without this resting phase, the butter liquefies prematurely before the starches can set. Pulling the pans at the ten-minute mark leaves the centers soft, relying on two minutes of residual heat transfer on the hot aluminum pan to finish the process without drying out the crumb.
- Flatten mounds gently with a flat spatula immediately after resting on wax paper to achieve an even thickness across all twenty-four portions.
- Store finished batches in an airtight container to prevent the peppermint crunch pieces and Oreo chunks from absorbing ambient moisture and turning sticky.
- Substitute equal parts salted butter for unsalted if adjusting sodium levels, though the commercial cake mix already provides a substantial saline base.
