Thank you to Nielsen-Massey for sponsoring today’s post! I recieved a product from Nielsen-Massey’s Vanillas to help develop this recipe. Remember, I only support brands I truly believe in!
My ideal day: wake up at 6AM, make myself some of Lindsay’s peppermint mocha, eat a nice hot plate of eggs and toast with peanut butter, get ready for the day in about 20 minutes, and watch some vlogmas and Christmas movies with about 30 minutes to spare before I have to head out the door. Then, when I come home from school in the afternoon, I spend a good hour taking pictures for my blog, about another hour doing homework, go on a run, eat dinner, and get ready to go to bed at 9:30.
Reality: wake up at 7:30, spend 95% of my morning making and eating breakfast, and the other 5% doing everything else. No time for YouTube… laziness strikes again! I come home from school, rush to get those food photos taken before the sun sets at like 4:00PM, then spend the rest of the evening drowning in homework. Oh yeah, we can’t forget about editing pictures until 10:00 PM and then taking a nice, long shower (aka one of the only stress-free parts of my day). Bedtime’s at about 11:00.
Okay, I’m totally exaggerating, but for real! I’m sure a ton of y’all can relate. Especially any blogger (fashion, travel, food, etc.) who seriously struggles to get work done when the sun sets literally so early in the day. I hope you can’t tell, but in my gingerbread cake recipe, the sun was setting quick and I was scrambling to get things done. And the colder weather makes you want to sleep in forever, leaving you with no time to get ready. When you love food as much as I do, breakfast takes top priority. I never miss breakfast, ever.
Besides winding down after a long day of the daily hustle-n-bustle of life, baking is probably the best part of my day. I didn’t mention it before in my routine, but I always try and bake something every week when I have the chance. Yesterday I made Stephanie’s super easy english muffins (by the way, who misses Girl Versus Dough like crazy??) at about 8 PM after dinner. Including waiting for the dough to rise and baking them, the entire process took about 3 hours! Yes, I give up sleep to make time for making food. But does that really surprise any of you?
Anyways, these frosted peppermint sugar cookies took me forever to finally come up with. That’s a lot of giving-up-sleep-to-make-time-for-making-food over the course of a couple days. I tried completely subbing the butter for coconut oil, but it kept leaking out of the dough and making it super oily and ew. When I tried to chill it, the coconut oil completely separated from the dough and solidified around it. Clumpy and oily and more ew.
Moral of the story: you can’t make sugar cookies without butter. I just thought I’d let you know.
I was way too excited when an opportunity sprung up to partner with Nielsen-Massey for #ChristmasCookies week. Nielsen-Massey has been crafting the world’s finest vanillas and flavors since 1907, in which each of their all-nature pure flavors are crafted with premium ingredients. They’re sourced from around the world and chosen to meet the utmost quality standards. From lemon to peppermint to coffee or chocolate, Nielsen-Massey’s pure flavors offer convenience, quality and consistency to ensure your favorite recipes taste delicious every single time. All products are gluten-free, allergen-free, GMO-free, all-natural and Kosher! LIFE CHANGING.
Another moral of the story: you can’t make frosted peppermint sugar cookies without Nielsen-Massey peppermint extract.
I seriously hope y’all give these cookies a try. Aren’t they cute?? They’re all pink and pepperminty and perfect for winter.
Oh and before I forget! Nielsen-Massey is so so generous and is giving one winner a set of their pure flavors, which includes 2-oz each of Orange, Lemon, Peppermint (my personal favorite, if you can’t already tell), Almond, Chocolate, Coffee, Rose Water, and Orange Blossom Water. You can enter here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
BAM. Frosted peppermint sugar cookies + friggin awesome giveaway = day made a whole lot better.
- 1 stick butter
- ¼ cup coconut oil, softened (not solid or melted)
- ½ cup agave
- 1 egg, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¾ tsp Nielsen-Massey peppermint extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- 1½ cups confectioner's sugar, sifted
- 1 tbsp milk
- ½ tsp peppermint extract (optional, but there's nothing wrong with a little bit more peppermint)
- red or pink gel food coloring
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter, coconut oil, and agave. Then, beat in the room temperature egg. Scrape down the bowl, then finally mix in the vanilla and peppermint extract. The mixture will be a little liquid-y, but don't worry! It all works out in the end.
- In a separate bowl, give the flour, baking powder, and salt a gentle whisk, then gently incorporate on low speed into the butter mixture.
- If you have a history of cookies spreading out too much and running into each other, then I suggest chilling in the fridge for up to an hour. However, I've never had that issue (not sure why, haha)! This is when you would divide the dough into two parts, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill.
- Roll the dough into 1-inch round balls, and gently press between your palms to flatten. Bake for 17-19 minutes, until cookies are lightly brown on the edges but still soft in the center. They will cook a little bit longer as they cool, so make sure not to over cook them!
- Using a hand mixer (or stand mixer, or even by hand, whatever works for you!), cream together butter and sugar. Add in milk and peppermint extract, then beat for an additional 3-4 minutes, until the frosting is smooth and fluffy. Color the frosting to your liking; I used a teeny drop of red food dye to make a pale pink color because I didn't have any pink, but you could do a deep red, bright pink, or even green!
- After the cookies have cooled, ice the cookies with a couple tablespoons of frosting and any other additional decorations of choice. These sugar cookies are a blank canvas, so get creative! Enjoy!!
Enjoy some more delicious cookie recipes from #christmascookies week here:
- Caramel-Stuffed Snickerdoodles by The Redhead Baker
- Chocolate Cake Mix Christmas M&M Cookies by Family Around the Table
- Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies by A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Cookies by Frugal Pantry
- Coffee-Kissed Pizzelle by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Dark Chocolate Dipped Orange Biscotti by Making the Most of Naptime
- Gingerdoodles by Making Miracles
- Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies by Kate’s Recipe Box
- Mexican Chocolate Chip Crinkle Cookies by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
- Pignoli Cookies by Love and Confections
- Peppermint Macaroons by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
- Place Setting Sugar Cookies by The Freshman Cook
- Santa’s Chocolate Chip Cookies by Soulfully Made
- Santa’s Thumbprint Cookies by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
Don’t forget to enter the Nielsen-Massey giveaway!
2 Comments
It is amazing how much time gets taken up with blogging but I’m glad you persevered and shared these cookies with us.
We tried this recipe and were disappointed with it. I’m sure we followed it step by step, and maybe it was supposed to happen this way – but the rice just turned to mush. the flavor was ok, but the mushy rice & the fact that there wasn’t much nutritional value to it aside from some protein from the chicken, we won’t be making it agin.