I went into my local Trader Joe’s last week on the hunt for some more of their yummy Sea Salt Caramel Chips but, as with other favored products you’ll find on their shelves, the item is either discontinued or seasonal and those chips are seasonal. That’s a serious marketing problem, in my opinion, because caramel is definitely not seasonal while it could be argued that peppermint is seasonal. I’d read in an article that certain items would not be available after the holidays and one of them is the peppermint-flavored baking chips, which I’d never tried. I saw a stack of them on a shelf and grabbed one, thinking about the possibilities in a cookie.
Today has Chinese mahjongg in the afternoon and I usually bring fresh-baked cookies to share, my daughter will soon be moving to a new space which means I’ll want to give one last cookie gift to the concierge, and I plan a trip soon to Bremerton to see my sister and hand her a few different types of cookies for which I’ve frozen the dough to make them fresh for her.
Anyway, these are not heavily peppermint (no peppermint extract in them) but have crushed candy cane along with the semi-sweet chocolate and peppermint-flavored offerings from Trader Joe’s. I had one for lunch and found them quite pleasant so the recipe joins my Snicks file, but they’ll only be available during Christmas baking after these. C’est la vie.
Ms Chef in Seattle 