109 cal, 7g sugar.

Melt-in-your-mouth, whole-grain (or gluten-free), low-sugar Chocolate Peppermint Cookies with a chocolate ganache middle. Healthy, festive and delicious!

These cookies use nothing but 5 healthy ingredients + chocolate. Three of my favorite ingredients as of late: Coconut oil and almond butter add richness and a nutty sweetness, maple syrup adds that little bit of sweet punch without resorting to refined sugars.

The rest of the batter is made with white whole wheat flour and cocoa powder. Healthy whole grains for the win!

The batter comes together so easily, no mixers or chilling required, just good ole spatula! Start by whisking together your flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Melt coconut oil and blend with almond butter, maple syrup, peppermint extract. Combine with the dry ingredients until a cookie dough forms. Done!

You will form balls of dough between your palms, flatten gently on the cookie sheet, make an indent using your thumb (or the back of a wooden spoon) and bake for only 8-10 minutes. We want the centers of these cookies to be still a bit fudgy and soft!

Once the cookies completely cool, you’ll fill their centers with your easy chocolate filling made of simply coconut oil, chocolate (vegan if desired) and more peppermint extract. Crushed candy cane is totally optional but it adds a nice festive touch!

Refrigerating the cookies let the chocolate center set so that the cookies are portable. Ready to be stacked and taken to that Holiday Party! They will be a total crowd pleaser, I guarantee it!

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Vegan Chocolate Peppermint Thumbprint Cookies

A low-sugar whole-grain (or gluten free) Chocolate Thumbprint Cookie Recipe with a festive peppermint flavor!

Course: Dessert, Snack

Servings: cookies

Calories: 109kcal

Ingredients

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener) (126 g)
2 tbsp coconut oil (30 g)
1/4 cup creamy almond butter (or alternative) (64 g)
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1 cup white whole wheat, all purpose, or gf all purpose flour (90 g)
1/4 cup cocoa powder (24 g)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips (60 g)
1 tsp coconut oil (5 g)
peppermint extract (to taste)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F and line a cookie sheet with parchment.
In a large bowl melt coconut oil and blend with syrup, almond butter, vanilla.
Whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt. Pour dry into wet and fold until cookie dough forms.
Using your palms make 16 balls of dough and flatten gently on the cookie sheet.
Using your thumb or the back of a wooden spoon make a dent in the middle of each cookie.
Bake for 8 minutes, remove from the oven and push down the thumbprints of the cookies again if necessary.
Let cookies cool and firm up on the cookie sheet.
While the cookies are cooling, prepare the ganache by melting chocolate with coconut oil (I use the microwave). Add peppermint extract to taste.
Fill the center of each cookie with 1 tsp (4g) ganache and sprinkle with optional crushed candy cane. Let the ganache set (refrigerating makes this easy).

Notes

You can probably use any creamy nut/seed butter instead of almond butter and the texture will not change drastically but I haven’t tried this.

Store cookies in a slightly open container in room temperature to keep their crisp. You can refrigerate them for maximum freshness and if they harden too much (because of the coconut oil) bring them to room temperature before eating.