In a large bowl or stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter, sugar, shortening, and sour cream on medium-high for about 3 minutes or until it is light and fluffy.
1 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup unsalted butter, 1/2 cup vegetable shortening, 1/2 cup sour cream
Add the egg, vanilla, and peppermint extract. Mix until well combined.
Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture a little at a time, mixing on low until all dry ingredients are fully combined with the creamed mixture.
Use a medium cookie scoop and place dough balls on prepared baking sheet 2" apart.
Gently press the dough balls down using the bottom of a cup.
Bake for 10 - 13 minutes, until the tops are set but still a pale yellow. Make sure you don't over bake them.
Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before you transfer them to the cooling rack to finish cooling.
Frosting a garnish:
Beat together the butter and peppermint extract until smooth and creamy.
1 cup unsalted butter, 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
Slowly add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, followed by 1 TBS of the heavy cream. Add more cream as needed to get a good consistency. Add pink food coloring if desired to get the pink frosting color.
After cookies are completely cool, frost them and sprinkle tops with crushed peppermints, coarse sugar, and chocolate curls .
crushed peppermint candies, coarse sugar, chocolate bar
Notes
Store the cookies in an airtight container or individually wrapped in plastic wrap. They should be good for up to five days at room temperature.Make sure your butter is very soft before trying to use it in this recipe. If it’s not soft, it will not cream properly, which can cause issues with the texture and softness of the cookies.Stores sell peppermint pieces that are perfect for decorating these cookies. If you can’t find those, place candy canes or peppermint candies in a plastic bag and hit with a meat mallet, bottom of a water bottle, or something else heavy until you get little pieces for decorating.Run a chocolate bar over a fine grater or a zester to get little chocolate shavings on top of the cookies.Freeze these cookies before frosting ideally. Place them in an airtight freezer safe bag or container and freeze for up to three months. If they’re already frosted and decorated, you can still freeze. Just wrap them individually in plastic wrap then put those individually wrapped cookies into a freezer safe bag. Thaw cookies individually to room temperature to enjoy.Ingredient Notes:
Cake Flour – make sure to use cake flour. If you don’t have any on hand, you can make your own cake flour by mixing three cups, minus six tablespoons, of regular all-purpose flour with six tablespoons of cornstarch. Or just order it from your local grocery store where its readily available.
Heavy cream – if you don’t have heavy cream, you can use whole milk in its place instead.
Shortening – you can substitute the shortening with butter if you like, but you will need to chill the dough if you use all butter instead of shortening.
Butter – speaking of butter, I recommend unsalted butter but if you only have salted butter, just omit the added salt the recipe calls for.