Xmas Peppermint Bites

Like it or not, you can't deny it. With the streets decorated with merry hollies and carols in the air, it's coming. With so many Christmas baking recipes and ideas - I couldn't quite decide which to attempt first for this season. I was thinking Candy Canes - but a friend said they wouldn't be appreciated because they're so easily available. So I thought Peppermint cookies? Why not? Never had Peppermint in a cookie - unless it was with a cream filling. And so I began the Peppermint cookie experiment.

They were meant to be twisted up (like candy canes) but the dough was too soft and broke apart too easily while I was rolling them into strips. I didn't want to add more flour (in case the final baked product got too dry) and I was using my brand new Silpat - which was already making my dough rolling easier. Silpat is wonderful! I haven't used it in the oven (still a little skeptical) but I love the non-stick surface, and it's all light, thin and so easy to wash! I bought mine for SGD$49.90 at Shermay Cooking School. It was a bit costly but it works so great I am actually considering getting another. So back to the cookie dough... I had them all rolled up into 1 inch balls and so I decided to make things simple and just bake them as they were, press them down with my thumb and sprinkled sugar over it.

Baking the cookies were the best part, it was like peppermint aromatherapy. The sweet vapours of peppermint and sugar embrace you when you opened the oven to take the cookies out. Eating them were on the other hand - not bad but really unusual. You can feel the trail of peppermint vapour going down from your mouth into your stomach. I might have added too much peppermint in this regard. I realise now why I've never had peppermint in a cookie - the medium of carrying peppermint should be in a liquid form or a candy form. To have it in a solid cookie medium was weird. It felt chalky and dry but it wasn't dry it was a moist crumb, but it just felt that way.

So... I think the next time, I would sandwich the cookies with a peppermint cream filling instead.