These soft cinnamon cut-out cookies with white chocolate peppermint topping is the perfect cookie for gift-giving this season! 

Let me tell you about these cookies and how they represent how much of a mother hen I am. I made the dough for these cookies and planned on baking them the next day, but my sister unexpectedly had guests over late that night and I hate when guests aren’t offered anything. We had nothing in the house except buttermilk and some canned corn. Soooo…. naturally, I got up and started rolling out the dough so I could give my sister and her friends some cookies.

The only holiday cookie cutters I had on hand were the small ones I bought to make my Gingerbread Cake. I planned on sharing the recipe for these cookies here on the blog and wanted them Christmasy – originally I was going to pick up bigger cutters first thing. Oh well, I thought, and proceeded to use these tiny little cutters to make my cookies. The only large ones I had that were kind of Christmasy were a mushroom and a gnome that sort of looks like Santa if he went on a diet. That’ll do, I suppose.

I didn’t finish baking all the cookies until about 1:30 am and botched a batch of cookies by leaving them in the oven for about 25 minutes because I was too exhausted and forgot to take out the cookies after I turned the alarm off. They were a nice  graham cracker brown and still looked kinda appetizing except for the fact that they were hard as rocks. Still, the kids needed cookies (I expected they were probably doing something to give them the munchies, but I think that about every teen these days), so I brought up a batch of naked cookies to them at 2am. Confused, but gracious, they took the cookies and the glasses of milk I brought up.

I was so tired that I passed out in the living room next to the kitchen in the middle of trying to melt my white chocolate. It didn’t burn, but did get all grainy and stiff, so I had to start over again in the morning because there was no way this person who is normally in bed before 10pm was going to stay up any later.

After all that, I couldn’t even bother to work on these cookies anymore and took only the shots you see here. Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!

Soft Cinnamon Cut-Out Cookies with White Chocolate Peppermint

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Ingredients

• 2 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract *
• 7 oz white chocolate, melted
• 2 candy canes, crushed

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon together. Set aside.
2. In a mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and cream. Add in the egg and mix well before adding in the extract.
3. Slowly add the flour to the butter mixture and mix well. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, then divide and roll into two balls. Tightly wrap in plastic and roll out. Chill for about 1 - 2 hours, or overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Take out one portion of dough and roll out until about 1/4 inch thick and cut with cookie cutters. Reshape and roll out scrapes as necessary. Repeat with second batch of dough.
6. Bake the cookies on parchment lined baking sheets for 8 - 9 minutes. The cookies should be only slightly golden brown at the edges. Cool completely on a wire rack.
7. Brush white chocolate on the tops of the cookies, then dip in the crushed peppermint. Allow to dry.

Notes

*can substitute one teaspoon vanilla with one teaspoon peppermint extract