How are we doing post-holiday?
Recovering from overeating (and drinking)? I hope if you’ve been celebrating a holiday over the last few days you were able to spend time with the people you love. I spent the weekend with my family and sweet little Bailey and according to my family, I need to relax more – aromatherapy and spa items made up my gift pile. So I’ll be smelling pretty good and making more of an effort to not get as stressed out in 2017.
I might need you all to keep me in check.
Speaking of smelling good, these peppermint cookies smell amazing. I know we’re realistically past the holiday baking season but we’ve still got one week left of 2016 and there’s no bad time for sugar cookies infused with peppermint.
Make these for your New Years celebration! They’ll taste most excellent alongside a glass of champagne. I mean, what doesn’t taste good with champagne?! We can detox in January.
I’m going to be doing the Whole30 program in January. Apparently there’s a chance that some foods may contribute to the constant knee pain I have. And given that I’m at the point in which I’ll literally try anything to make my knee better, I’m going to embark on this challenge and see if it helps. I gotta say though, I’m not looking forward to a month without cheese…
Back to these cookies though, we aren’t detoxing yet. They’re light, fluffy, soft, minty and the frosting I made to go with them is so easy it’s silly. A couple of ingredients and once the frosting is dry, you can stack the cookies on top of each other and they won’t stick together. That’s the frosted cookie dream!
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 tsp. peppermint extract
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
For the frosting:
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract
- 2-3 tbsp. milk
Instructions
- In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, vanilla and peppermint extract. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Roll out dough onto a floured surface 1/4-1/2″ thick. Cut into shapes.
- Bake for 6-8 minutes. Let cool completely, then decorate.
- In a large bowl, sift in the powdered sugar. Stir in the vanilla and peppermint extracts then stir in the milk, 1 tbsp. at a time, until the frosting reaches your desired consistency.
