This past Christmas, one of my favorite students brought me these ridiculous holiday cookies–I remember tasting them, and after one bite, I threw caution to the wind and ate all three without even stopping to breathe.  (I know you’re not supposed to play favorites with students, but cookies always help.) I asked him for his mom’s recipe, and finally made them tonight. I’m infamous for not having certain ingredients and improvising, and tonight was no exception—the recipe calls for crushed peppermints and white chocolate morsels; I didn’t have either, but I had crushed Andes white peppermint baking chips, so I used those.  Delicious.  Here’s the deal:

Peppermint Melt Away Cookies
Active Time: 30 minutes.  Total time: 1 Hour

Ingredients:

Pam cooking spray
1 8oz. package cream cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter 9 (1 stick)
Large zip-top bag
1 cup starlight mints (or candy canes) finely crushed
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 box white cake mix
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350.
2. Coat baking sheets with spray.
3. Cut cream cheese and butter into small pieces, place into large bowl to soften and crush mints in zip-top bag.
4. Add egg, vanilla, and half the cake mix to the cream cheese and butter.  Mix with electric mixer for 1-2 minutes.  Stir in remaining half of cake mix, white chocolate chips and ½ cup of the mints.  Place remaining ½ cup of mints in  shallow bowl.
5. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and press tops of dough into mints.  Place on baking sheets, mint side up and 2 inches apart.  Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden and center is barely set.  Let stand 3-4 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool.

Making these cookies tonight connected me with an awesome moment at the end of the semester, and I’m thankful to feel this sense of connection to a world that already feels like a distant memory.  And, as an added bonus, I love that my whole house smells like Christmas now, and I have the perfect midnight snack.