Peppermint Cocoa Crinkles

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup of butter

1 3/4 cup of sugar, divided

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Frosting

1/2 cup crushed candy canes

Instructions:

Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in medium bowl, set aside. -- I usually don't do this step, but with this recipe it does work better. Also, it helps to run your whisk through it and make sure it is mixed up.

Melt butter in sauce pan over medium heat; cool slightly. Add 1 1/4 cups sugar, whisk until smooth. Whisk in eggs, on at a time. Stir in vanilla. Stir into flour mixture just until blended. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350, grease cookie sheets. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in remaining 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl. Place on sheets with plenty of space -- I do 12 per sheet on my 11 x 15.

Bake 12 minutes. Let cookies cool completely.

Placed crushed candy canes on wax paper. Spread frosting on the bottom of cookie. Place second cookie on, bottoms together to create a sandwich. Push them together until frosting starts to appear on the edge. Roll through candy canes.

Review:

Pros: We love these at Christmas time, they are a nice twist on an old favorite (homemade oreos). They turn out perfect almost every time. I've also made these the regular way (soften the butter and whip the sugar in, then eggs & vanilla and dry ingredients) and they have still turned out. They are even good if you run out of frosting and just dip them in milk.

Cons: It always makes less than you think, because it takes 2 cookies to make a sandwich and it's like eating twice as many calories per cookie.