Cake Mix Peppermint Bark Cookies

Though we're all for pulling out all the stops for holiday baking masterpieces (just wait till you see day 12!), sometimes you just really want or need some festive cookies, like right now. That's where these chocolate cookies come in. It doesn't get much easier than opening a box of cake mix and winding up with a killer batch of cookie dough, but even better is how versatile these are—you can use any mix-ins you like.

The key to transforming cake mix into cookies is to not overbake the dough, and to use a technique called pan banging, which helps get the batter to spread. It's also a pretty good technique for getting any pent-up holiday frustrations out!

If that's not reason enough to get baking, these are incredible with almost any chocolate you've got lying around this holiday season. Chopped peppermint Hershey's kisses, chopped Ghirardelli squares, crushed candy canes of any flavor…feel free to get creative with it.