These cookies bring me a lot of childhood memories. One of my favorites is when my aunt, Luda, and I would go into town shopping, and we would always stop by a café. For a country gal like me, these little trips were special and fun getaways. She would get some of these cookies with a cold glass of apple juice and we would enjoy them together. I used to love it so much! Well, I still do!
Early on in my homemaking career, I found the recipe from my other aunt, Nadia, and now make them at home. They are loved by everyone. My husband likes them with tea, the kids enjoy them with milk, and me...
... of course with a good old cold glass of good quality apple juice 🙂 These Peppermint Glazed Cookies are indescribably delicious and one of the most popular out there.
When I first started making this recipe over 15 years ago, the cookies themselves would usually turn out very good, but I couldn't figure out the glaze. It would crack and break off the cookie, like a shell. I asked my aunt what the secret was, and the instructions were the same. Until one time I was in a hurry to finish making them and instead of mixing the glaze ingredients separately, I threw them in all together in a bowl and beat it all at once.
Later on when I took the first bite of a cookie, I almost froze when I saw that the glaze did not crack. Not even off one cookie as they were being devoured. I was the happiest camper ever at that moment, having stumbled upon the trick. I found by doing that, it prevented the glaze from cracking or breaking off in whole as you bite. I was so excited that I made the cookies over and over again.
This is my least favorite type of dough to work with, because it's so sticky, but the end result is worth it. These cookies, sweet on the inside, with a soft minty hint glaze on the outside are so delicious, that I cannot help enjoying them like a child again and again. My older girls are getting really good at them, and are replicating my baking tips and secrets and it works very well for them as well.
Over the years I figured out the exact touch the recipe requires to make the cookies just right with almost clean hands too. So today, I’d like to share this recipe and tip with you as well!
Ingredients for the dough:
3 egg yolks – from large eggs (reserve the whites)
2 cups – granulated sugar
1 lb – sour cream
⅛ tsp. - salt
1 tsp. - baking soda
2 tsp. – vinegar
5 ½ cups – sifted all-purpose flour
Ingredients for the Glaze
4 egg – whites
5 -5 ½ cups – confectioners’ sugar (depends how big the whites are)
1 tsp. – pure peppermint extract
Dough Instructions:
1. Separate egg yolks from egg whites (cover the whites and let it stand on the counter top to make a glaze). Beat yolks and sugar on high adding only ½ a cup of sugar after each beating and scraping sides of the mixer bowl with a spatula (otherwise if you beat all sugar and eggs at once you will have yellow not mixed yolks, speaking from experience ;). Add sour cream and salt.
2. Beat well for couple of minutes; scrape the sides of the bowl and beat well for another 2-3 minutes. Than activate baking soda with vinegar, add it to the dough, mix until combined for about 30 seconds and let it stand on the counter top for 10 – 15 minutes so the baking soda vinegar and sour cream can do its own chemical reaction (bubble up :). Attach dough hook mixing attachment and then add sifted flour (5 cups of not sifted flour makes 5 ½ cups of sifted flour) ½ cup at a time. Scrape a mixer bowl with rubber spatula in-between some flour addition.
3. Sift ½ cup of flour onto a working surface (I use a large cutting board). Remove all the dough from a mixing bowl onto floured work surface with a rubber spatula. Coat the dough with flour. Roll into a ball. Dip the knife into flour and cut the dough in three pieces (for easier rolling). Reserve all the excess flour for rolling and cutting the cookies.
4. Roll one piece of dough into a log about 1.5” thickness.
5. Dip the knife into a flour (in between each time you cut, to prevent the dough from sticking to the knife) cut log into small cookie pieces. Dip each side of the cookie piece into flour, roll it into a ball with your hands, than dip it into flour again if it’s sticky and not perfectly shaped into a ball.
Place rolled cookies onto a large pan greased with butter about 2” apart. Repeat the same steps with two other pieces of dough. Bake 20 cookies in preheated to 375 F oven for 20 – 25 minutes, or until light golden in color.
Glazing Instruction:
While the cookies are cooling start working on the glaze (you can also make the glaze while the cookies are baking if you have time, just cover the glaze so the top does not dry out and not form crusty top lining). As I mentioned above (to prevent the glaze from cracking and falling off from the cookie like a shell), you will need to add all ingredients: whites (reserve, plus one more), confectioners’ sugar (add most of the confectioners’ sugar, than adjust the thickness needed to make a perfect glaze) and mint.
Start beating from low speed (unless you want to stand in the white cloud of powdered sugar dust :), increasing the speed gradually. Beat it on high for about 2 – 3 minutes. Let the glaze stand on the counter top for a few minutes so the air bubbles can flow up to the top, then gently brake the bubbles with a circle fork motion.
Glazing the Cookies
1. Place the cookies into a bowl with glaze. Coat 2 – 3 cookies at a time letting the glaze drain of the cookie a little before transferring it onto waxed paper for drying. Scrape off excess glaze from the bottom of the cookie before placing it onto waxed paper. See picture (a picture is worth a thousand words :).
2. Repeat glazing steps with all the cookies. Remove glazed cookie – add not glazed and so on. You should have enough glaze for all the cookies with just a little left over. Place all the cookies onto waxed paper.
3. When the cookies are dry on the top, shift the cookie from side to side, this will leave the excess glaze on the paper and the cookie will be almost perfect shape on the bottom.
Ingredients
- Ingredients for the dough:
- 3 egg yolks – from large eggs reserve the whites
- 2 cups – granulated sugar
- 1 lb – sour cream
- ⅛ tsp. - salt
- 1 tsp. - baking soda
- 2 tsp. – vinegar
- 5 ½ cups – sifted all-purpose flour + ½ cup for rolling the cookies
- Ingredients for the glaze:
- 4 egg – whites
- 5 -5 ½ cups – confectioners’ sugar depends how big the whites are
- 1 tsp. – pure peppermint extract
Instructions
- Separate egg yolks from egg whites (cover the whites and let it stand on the counter top to make a glaze). Beat yolks and sugar on high adding only ½ a cup of sugar after each beating and scraping sides of the mixer bowl with a spatula (otherwise if you beat all sugar and eggs at once you will have yellow not mixed yolks, speaking from experience ;). Add sour cream and salt.
- Beat well for couple of minutes; scrape the sides of the bowl and beat well for another 2-3 minutes. Than activate baking soda with vinegar, add it to the dough, mix until combined for about 30 seconds and let it stand on the counter top for 10 – 15 minutes so the baking soda vinegar and sour cream can do its own chemical reaction (bubble up :). Attach dough hook mixing attachment and then add sifted flour (5 cups of not sifted flour makes 5 ½ cups of sifted flour) ½ cup at a time. Scape a mixer bowl with rubber spatula in-between some flour addition.
- Sift ½ cup of flour onto a working surface (I use a large cutting board). Remove all the dough from a mixing bowl onto floured work surface with a rubber spatula. Coat the dough with flour. Roll into a ball. Dip the knife into flour and cut the dough in three pieces (for easier rolling). Reserve all the excess flour for rolling and cutting the cookies.
- Roll one piece of dough into a log about 1.5” thickness. Dip the knife into flour and cut log into small cookie pieces. Dip each side of the cookie piece into flour, roll it into a ball with your hands, that dip it into flour again if it’s sticky and not perfectly shaped into a ball. Place rolled cookies onto a large pan greased with butter about 2” apart. Repeat the same steps with two other pieces of dough. Bake20 cookies on one pan in preheated to 375F oven for 20 – 25 minutes, or until light golden in color.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes or so (the cookies should not be hot to touch, but warm enough so the glaze can dry out. If you glaze cookies hot, the cookies will make the nest on the bottom of the cookies and it will not look pretty. So, have patience with these babies).
- Glazing Instruction
- While the cookies are cooling start working on the glaze (you can also make the glaze while the cookies are baking if you have time, just cover the glaze so the top does not dry out and not form crusty top lining). As I mentioned above (to prevent the glaze from cracking and falling off from the cookie like a shell), you will need to add all ingredients: whites (reserve, plus one more), confectioners’ sugar (add most of the confectioners’ sugar, than adjust the thickness needed to make a perfect glaze) and mint. Start beating from low speed (unless you want to stand in the white cloud of powdered sugar dust :), increasing the speed gradually. Beat it on high for about 2 – 3 minutes. Let the glaze stand on the counter top for a few minutes so the air bubbles can flow up to the top, then gently brake the bubbles with a circle fork motion.
- Glazing the Cookies
- Place the cookies into a bowl with glaze. Coat 2 – 3 cookies at a time letting the glaze drain of the cookie a little before transferring it onto waxed paper for drying. Scrape off excess glaze from the bottom of the cookie before placing it onto waxed paper. See picture (a picture is worth a thousand words :).
- Repeat glazing steps with all the cookies. Remove glazed cookie – add not glazed and so on. You should have enough glaze for all the cookies with just a little left over. Place all the cookies onto waxed paper.
- When the cookies are dry on the top, shift the cookie from side to side, this will leave the excess glaze on the paper and the cookie will be almost perfect shape on the bottom.
Enjoy!
If you make this Peppermint Glazed Cookies please share the picture with me on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. Tag it with #valyastasteofhome, I would love to see your creation. 🙂
Olga says
Hi Valya,
I've make these cookies more than a dozen of times. They are so good, hands down my favorite cookie. I enjoy them with milk or tea. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Aww... that's awesome!!! Glad to hear that you made them that many times too, thank you! And thank you very for amazing review! 🙂
Olga says
These look scrumptious! I want to make them
Today and wanted to make sure that it's
7 egg white total for the glaze right?
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Hmm... the recipe says 4 egg whites total.
Ilona's Passion says
Lovely cookies! So pretty! I like the peppermint flavor in them:)
valya'stasteofhome.com says
Thank you Ilona. Have you ever made or tried them?
Natasha says
Oh my I absolutely love this cookies. Yum! Thank you for sharing.
valya'stasteofhome.com says
You are very welcome, enjoy! 🙂