Saturday, December 15, 2007

Peppermint Crunchies

Every year, the ladies in my church gather for a cookie exchange. Each of us bring five dozen cookies to exchange. It's a beautiful sight to behold, to see all of those cookies spread out along the dining table of the host. The exchange is always such a wonderful time of fellowship. All ladies, five years of age and older, are invited to come to the exchange. When we arrive, each of us take our cookies and put them on display. Then we gather to talk, sing Christmas carols and hymns, and eat some of the cookies.The younger girls usually form a circle in the middle of the floor and sing along with us. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to watch our daughters celebrating with us through singing. A few minutes before it's time to go home, the host tells us to gather our cookies. We form a line around the cookie table and start to collect the cookies we'd like to take home. I think last year we each brought home almost 60 cookies.

The exchange is coming up on Monday night so today I'll be making the cookies I will take. Last year I made Peppermint Crunchies and they were the only cookies of this kind. A few of the ladies have asked me if I will be making those same cookies this year and expressed how much they loved them, so I will be taking them again this year! I would love to take credit for the recipe but the way I found it was by looking confused in the baking aisle! Last year, I was in Walmart looking through the baking chips, trying to figure out what kind of cookies I wanted to make. There was a nice lady standing near me doing the same thing. We struck up a conversation and I told her that I had to make five dozen cookies and I was trying to determine what kind of baking chips I wanted to use in my cookies. She immediately picked up some Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips and showed me the recipe on the back. I'd never noticed these chips before and I listened as she told me how she made these cookies to take to a work party. She went on about how her co-workers raved about them.She said she was asked to make them for almost any work party they had. Right away I knew that making these cookies had to be a great idea so I picked up several packs of chips and off I went. I made them last year, took them, and they were wonderful. Alas, here is the recipe:

Peppermint Crunch Chunkies

  • 2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
  • 1 cup sweetened grated coconut
  • 1 1/4 cups coarsely chopped pecans
  • 1 1/2 cups Andes Peppermint Crunch baking chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until fluffy (about 3 minutes). Beat in egg and vanilla extract. On low speed, add baking soda, salt, and then flour. Mix completely. Stir in oats, coconut, pecans, and baking chips. Measure about 2 Tbs. for large or 1 Tbs. for small cookies. Place round balls on lightly greased cookie sheet two inches apart. Press lightly. Sprinkle some of the remaining chips on top of each cookie. Bake for 20 minutes for large cookies or 12-15 minutes for small cookies. Do not over bake. They get crunchy on the outside but remain soft inside. Remove from cookie sheet and let cool.

Yield approximately: 30-3" or 60-1 1/2" cookies.

 



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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am looking for these chips! Were you in a super Wal-Mart, or just a regular one; and where in the store were you (baking aisle, holiday food aisle, etc.) Thanks so very much -- I enjoyed your story and would like to try these cookies.

Sonya said...

Sherry,

I found these chips at Super Walmart and they were in the baking aisle. They are around all of the other baking chips. They are normally near the Andes regular mint chips. I hope you find them!

Anonymous said...

These sound wonderful!

gail@more than a song said...

These sound SO good but I don't like coconut....wonder if I could leave it out?