Chocolate and peanut butter. Chocolate and peppermint. Why not combine these tasty duos into one trio? Dark chocolate peanut butter cookies with crushed peppermint candy cane on top.

Are you familiar with the Christmas car costumes that appear this time of year? The reindeer antlers and nose or the elf ears and hat? Do you think they are ridiculous? If so, then I think you are zero fun. My friend Suzanne and I have been on the hunt for the reindeer get-up for years, ever since we first laid eyes on it. Unfortunately it proved to be nearly impossible to find as it was sold out in every store we checked year after year. We did find it online but that felt like cheating. Well guess what? While at Walgreens on a totally different mad hunt (searching for chalk – who knew chalk would be such a hard thing to find), I walked right past a display full of the reindeer costumes. Done and done. My car is adorable and I don’t care what anyone says.And then like an idiot, I rolled down my window while driving (had to get rid of a bug) and one of the antlers flew off. Thankfully I was able to turn around and retrieve it.

Along with silly car costumes, another thing that appears around Christmas-time is a plethora of candy canes. Like it or not you will somehow end up with at least one in your possession. To help you find purpose for all those minty holiday treats (or fruity if you’re lucky enough to get a fancy one), PB&Co has challenged a group of bloggers to come up with #CandyCaneHacks aka solutions to excessive candy canes. So I did the first logical thing that came to mind – smash to bits and sprinkle on top of cookies. Using a trusty 4-ingredient flourless peanut butter cookie recipe, I made dark chocolate peanut butter thumbprint cookies filled with more dark chocolate dreams peanut butter and topped with crushed peppermint candy cane. Want more peppermint flavor? Add peppermint extract instead of vanilla to the cookie dough.

Want to get your hands on some of Peanut Butter & Co’s peanut butter? Use the Rafflecopter widget located at the bottom of this post and enter to win 2 jars of your choosing. Can’t wait? Use the code ” YUMSQUADLOVE” and receive 25% off their online store for the month of December. And follow #CandyCaneHacks for ideas on how to pair candy canes with your favorite peanut butter.

One year ago: Chicken and Pesto Stuffed Shells

Two years ago: Sugar Cookie Spoons for Hot Cocoa

Four years ago: Blueberry-Almond Turtles

PEPPERMINT & DARK CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER THUMBPRINT COOKIES

Makes 2 dozen small cookies

Ingredients:

COOKIES

1 cup PB&Co’s Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp peppermint extract (or vanilla extract)

TOPPING

1/4 cup PB&Co’s Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter

1 regular peppermint candy cane, crushed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment or silicone baking mat. Set aside.
2. In large bowl, blend peanut butter with sugar, egg and extract until combined. Scoop tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheet (I used a small cookie scoop). Bake 10 minutes, until cookies have slightly flattened and are not shiny. Remove from oven and cool 5 minutes on baking sheet.
3. Press thumb into the center of the warm cookie or use the back of a utensil to create an indentation. Spoon in 1/2 teaspoon nutella into hole and sprinkle with crushed candy cane. Serve.

Source: Adapted from Salted Nutella Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies.

Disclosure: Peanut Butter & Co provided complimentary product to create any recipe of my choosing and is sponsoring this giveaway. I was not otherwise compensated. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
a Rafflecopter giveaway