peppermint bark chocolate cookies

Well, the wedding I was in was a rousing success, I had a nice visit with my folks who came down for the weekend, I got all my shopping done (I think), and I made one out of the three cookie recipes I need to have baked for the potluck on Thursday. I probably should make the second recipe tonight, but it's already 10:00 and it's just not going to happen. I'm still feeling overwhelmed, but it's good to know I have accomplished something.

These cookies are really good. They pretty much taste exactly like you'd expect, in a good way. The recipe can be found here. No surprise that I did the "bark" the lazy way: used a scant half cup of crushed 'soft' peppermint candies* and a heaping half cup of white chocolate chips. (This dough is thick; I think my 20 year old hand-me-down hand mixer was about to overheat! Someday you will be mine, KitchenAid stand mixer... someday.) Keep the dough in the fridge between batches. All my batches were done in 10 minutes, which never happens when I make cookies, so be sure to check these at 10. Oh, and someone in the comments suggested adding a bit of peppermint extract but I did not and I would not in the future. Too much mint is overwhelming, the candy adds plenty of it, trust me. I got about 46 cookies or so. I will wrap these in wax paper and put them in an airtight container, then freeze till Thurs so they stay fresh-tasting. I'll try to post the other cookie recipes later in the week, but no hard and fast promises! G'night.

* Like these. They're hardish but sort of melty when you chew them. I wouldn't even think about using the totally hard kind; these were a pain enough to crush as it was. I unwrapped a bunch, put them in a freezer bag and went after it with a rolling pin. They crush better if you throw your weight into pressing the pin down on them, rather than bashing them.