These Chocolate Peppermint Shortbread Cookies are buttery, tender, and dressed up with a glossy chocolate dip and sparkling candy cane crunch. They're the perfect festive treat for gifting, serving, or adding to your holiday cookie tray.

Every year I bake a mix of classics and new favorites, from chocolate crinkle cookies to peppermint chocolate sugar cookies. This shortbread variation brings a little something different to the lineup. 

The dough comes together with just a few ingredients, bakes into a buttery, peppermint-scented slab, and cuts cleanly into perfect little bars. Once cooled, each piece gets dipped in smooth semi-sweet chocolate and topped with crushed candy cane for that festive peppermint sparkle.

Ingredients You'll Need

Salted Butter: Most of my recipes use unsalted butter, but you'll need salted butter for this recipe, and it should be fully at room temperature so the dough mixes smoothly and presses easily into the pan.

Confectioner's sugar: Powdered sugar gives shortbread its signature tender, melt-in-your-mouth texture. 

Vanilla extract + peppermint extract: Vanilla adds warmth while a touch of peppermint gives the cookies their holiday flavor without overpowering the chocolate.

All-purpose flour: Provides structure and keeps the shortbread crisp and light.

Semi-sweet chocolate: Use chopped chocolate bars or high-quality baking wafers for dipping. Tempering ensures a shiny finish and clean snap. You can always skip tempering and just melt the chocolate but the coating may take longer to set or stay a bit soft.

Crushed candy canes: Sprinkle over the dipped cookies for a festive look and peppermint crunch. To crush candy canes easily, place them in a sealed plastic bag and tap them with a rolling pan, while the bag lays flat on your countertop. Then, remove any remaining large pieces.

How to Make Peppermint Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies

With so few ingredients, shortbread is one of the easiest holiday cookies you can make, and this peppermint version comes together with just a few steps.

Start by creaming the softened butter with the confectioner's sugar, vanilla, and peppermint extract until the mixture is smooth and fluffy. Add the flour and mix just until the dough forms. It will be thick and soft but not sticky.

Press the dough into a buttered and parchment-lined 9×13 pan, smoothing the top so the baked cookies look neat and even. Use a fork to poke holes across the surface. This helps the shortbread bake evenly without bubbling. Bake at a low 300°F until the edges turn lightly golden.

Once the slab is cool enough to handle, flip it out onto a large cutting board and slice it into bars or squares using a sharp knife or pizza cutter.

After the cookies have cooled completely, dip each piece into tempered semi-sweet chocolate and sprinkle the tops with crushed candy canes. Let the chocolate set before serving or storing.

I highly recommend chopping a good quality chocolate bar, not chocolate chips, and melting it. You can read more about types of chocolate and chopping chocolate easily in my post on How to Chop Chocolate.

Tempering the chocolate is optional but your coating may not look as shiny or set quickly. Check the recipe card notes for steps on tempering chocolate. For a full video and to read more about tempering chocolate, check out my post on How to Temper Chocolate. 

Storing Shortbread Cookies

These chocolate dipped peppermint shortbread cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days. They can also be frozen in an airtight container for up to 1 month. For freezing, I recommend freezing them before dipping so the chocolate stays shiny. 

Tips for Recipe Success

Room temperature butter: Butter is a key component in cookies and especially shortbread cookies. It needs to be warm enough to blend well with the sugar and coat the flour to create a tender crust. If you forget to leave the butter out, try some of my tips on getting butter to room temperature quickly. 

Pressing the dough evenly into the pan: The dough should go into the pan as evenly as possible so it bakes evenly and also so your cookies are uniform in thickness after you cut them. 

Cut the cookies while still warm: Cutting the cookies while they are still warm will keep the cookies from crumbling when cutting. Remove the slab from the pan as soon as it's cool enough to touch. 

Let the chocolate set: Don't ruin your gorgeous dipped cookies by storing them in a container before the chocolate is completely set! Make sure it's dry and then layer them in a container separated with parchment or wax paper. 

Decoration Ideas:

There's no one way to decorate cookies. Get creative and make it your own! Here are a few other suggestions: 

• Dip the cookie on a diagonal or drizzle with chocolate instead. (Or do both for a layered look.)
• Use white chocolate or dark chocolate.
• Cut the cookies into squares or triangles instead of rectangles.