To begin, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a saucepan, combine the butter and a half cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Melt them together over low heat, stirring often.
When they are completely melted, remove them from the heat. Stir in the instant espresso powder and the extracts (vanilla and peppermint). Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes.
While that cools, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking cocoa in your mixing bowl. Stir these together and set aside for a moment.
To your chocolaty mixture, add in the sugars. In a small dish, whisk the eggs until they are bubbly.
Pour the whisked eggs into the chocolate mixture and stir until combined.
Add the chocolate mixture to your flour mixture and mix until well combined. Be sure to scrape the bowl with a rubber scraper.
Stir in the remaining cup of chocolate chips. If you like, you can also mix in the finely chopped candy canes at this point for an added bonus.
Scoop by rounded tablespoons onto a sheet of parchment paper for baking on a stone, or onto a lightly greased cookie sheet. The cookies should be about an inch and a half apart.
Bake for 10 minutes. The cookies will be very soft when they come out of the oven.
Let them cool in place for 2 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.