Mint Crinkle Cookies

The other day, my roommates and I went to buy Christmas decorations for our room. 

I kid you not, we don't even need our normal lights on now because we have so many Christmas lights. And tinsel. And a real Christmas tree with ornaments.
And the other day when I walked in, there was Christmas music playing.

So now that I'm officially in the Christmas spirit, I thought I'd share these cookies that I made over break.

Have you ever had the mint crinkle cookies from Panera? They're heavenly. So I used the always trusty Google to find a recipe and voila! My very own, chocolatey, minty, melt in your mouth Christmas cookies that taste just as good, if not better, in the comfort of my own home.

So good in fact, that I brought them back to school with me and they now reside in the most Christmas-y room on the planet (aside from maybe Santa's room). 

The original recipe said to put Hershey Kisses on top, but I didn't have any and Panera doesn't do that to theirs, so I opted out. Turns out I should've done something to make up for it, because everyone in my family agreed, there was only one thing that could make them better:

Chocolate chips.

Seriously, add them. Unless you don't like chocolate, in which case you probably shouldn't make these in the first place.

 This picture's a little blurry, but how can you resist that gooey, chocolatey center?!

Recipe adapted from Recipe Girl

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups granulated white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 cup powdered sugar
Chocolate Chips (as many as your heart desires)

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla extract and peppermint extract.

3. Add dry ingredients to the wet ones in two or three divisions, mixing until they're just combined. Add the chocolate chips and mix just a few times until they're evenly distributed. Then, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll the dough into 1/2 Tablespoon balls (I just used a small ice cream scoop here). Roll the balls in the powdered sugar and place on the cookie sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 11-13 minutes and enjoy!