Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies

I had a lot of little issues with the recipe, but over time, I tweaked it into something I really like.

Issue 1: If you refrigerate this overnight, as it is suggested, it is extremely firm and difficult to scoop, even if left out at room temperature for a half hour or so before scooping. This wouldn't be a big deal, if this made only a dozen or so cookies, but since it makes 4 dozen or more, it's an issue.

Adaptation 1 (not yet tried): If I make these again, I think I'd probably evenly spread the dough/batter into a lined half-sheet tray, refrigerate until firm; invert the tray to pop out the chilled dough, cut into equal cubes with a knife and roll those into balls.

Issue 2: The baking time and temperature seem long and high and result in a pretty dry, cake-like cookie that is not that excited to eat.

Adaptation 2: Having tried a bunch of different iterations, 325F for 10-12 minutes yields a denser, fudgier result with that slight brownie-like crust on the outside.

Issue 3: I crushed candy canes and sprinkled on top, and while they added an interested texture to the cooled cookies, they looked weird and gross when baked at the rec'd temp/duration.

Adaptation 3: At the reduced baking temp and time (in adaptation 2), the candy cane didn't melt at all, but looked a lot better. I also found, that I liked the look of these better sans powdered sugar. After baking several of these in small batches, using different tempertures/times/toppings, I settled on one of two ideal ways to adorn them: 1) liberally sprinkle with crushed candy cane, press an unwrapped dark chocolate kiss into the top of each baked cookie as soon as they are pulled from the oven (a la the classic "peanut butter blossom"). 2) lightly sprinkle with crushed candy cane, bake and cool. Drizzle with white chocolate ganache and immediately sprinkle with red and white sprinkles (I used white nonpareils, and red sanding sugar); allow to set completely before packing.

After all of the tinkering, I kinda fell hard for these cookies, but as written, this recipe falls way short for me.

These tirnrd our horrible...and I tried them twice! Dough turnd to rock after about 30 minutes in fridge. Waste of money snd time.

I am not sure if I like this recipe. The dough is very loose - more like the consistency of brownie batter. Is this how it is supposed to look?

Gonna makes these cookies for Christmas but I was wondering it said to keep in a airtight container up to 2 days can you keep freeze them so they keep longer