Peppermint Bark Chocolate Cookies

I had a baking day the day before before Christmas Eve, and on that day, I had a long list of items I planned to bake. I was going to make three batches of cinnamon rolls, some white chocolate-dipped Oreos, a batch of dinner rolls, some peppermint bark, and a batch of these Peppermint Bark Chocolate Cookies.
Things were going smoothly. The Oreos were dipped, the peppermint bark was made, a batch of cinnamon rolls were done, another batch was rising, and the third batch was mixing in the bread machine. As the morning went along, I kept thinking that I smelled gas coming from my oven. The smell, and my headache, kept getting worse and worse, and I decided to play it safe and call the gas company.
By the time the man from the gas company arrived, much of the smell had dissipated. I had turned off the oven and opened a kitchen window. The man tested my stove and said that there was definitely something wrong. He thought it might be a delayed ignition, and told me that he would shut off the gas line to the oven and that I should call a repairman.
Jim was able to find a repairman, but he wasn't available until the following morning. I had two batches of cinnamon rolls rising in my fridge, and I was supposed to bring a dessert for Jim's family Christmas the next afternoon. I wasn't sure what to do. I ended up calling two of the friends that were recipients of some of the cinnamon rolls and asking if they minded baking their own rolls. They both graciously told me that would be just fine, and they both offered the use of their ovens. Our friend, Beth, lives a couple blocks away, and since she and her family were planning to be out that evening, I decided to take her up on her offer and go over to bake the third batch of cinnamon rolls and the cookies for the family Christmas.
The cinnamon rolls got pretty big because they had risen in the fridge all afternoon, and the cookies tasted good, but I thought that they were kind of flat. I had never made the cookies before, and I decided I wanted to try them again after our oven was repaired.
I made the cookies again this week, and this time, I added about half a cup of extra flour and half a teaspoon of peppermint extract. They were a little less flat this time, and they tasted very good, but they still weren't just like the cookies in the original recipe.
As I baked the cookies, I used this new beater (a Christmas gift from my parents) on my Kitchen Aid mixer. I really like this beater! It scrapes the sides of the bowl as it mixes, and it keeps dry ingredients from collecting at the bottom and not getting fully mixed.

By the way, our oven is fixed! The gas man was correct about the delayed ignition, and the repairman was able to fix our oven on Christmas Eve morning fairly quickly and easily. We are thankful for our working oven and for safety on our baking day!