Recipe: Candy Cane Cookies

Adapted from Betty Crocker original recipe for Candy Cane Cookies 

I make these every year. They’re SO good. Almond and vanilla. A soft-snappy bite. Dusted with sugar and crushed candy cane. And, they freeze nicely to fit into holiday prep. One of my fav cookie recipes!

Ingredients - Cookie Dough

• 300g (~ 2 ½ cups) all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1 tsp table salt
• 226g (1 cup) of unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 113g (~1 cup) of powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 ½ tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 drops of red food coloring (gel preferred)

Ingredients - Candy Cane Topping

• ¼ cup crushed candy canes
• ¼ cup granulated sugar

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in the egg, almond extract, and vanilla extract until completely incorporated.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until a dough forms.
5. Divide the dough in half (about 350g for each half). Add and completely blend food coloring into one half of the dough. Divide each ½ of dough into equal-sized pieces (~½ tbsp-sized balls for 16 pieces or ~1 tbsp-sized balls for 32 pieces). Cover with plastic wrap so they don’t dry out. Allow the dough to rest and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. This will help make the dough easier to work with.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll a piece of dough from each color into 5-inch smooth strips. Place the two strips side-by-side and twist the colors around each other into a rope. Roll the rope to 7-inches, which will help the two strips stick together. Note: if you have too much flour on your surface or hands, the strips won’t stick together; if you have too little flour, the dough may stick to your surface. If your dough is too sticky or hard to handle, put it back in the fridge to chill.
7. Place the twisted rope on the prepared baking sheet and curve the top slightly to shape it into a candy cane. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough. You should end up with 16-32 cookies about 1 inch apart on the baking sheets.
8. Bake for 9-12 minutes (may need longer for larger cookies), rotating baking sheets about halfway through baking. Bake cookies until they are just slightly brown on the bottom.
9. While the cookies are baking: mix together the crushed candy cane and granulated sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
10. Upon removing the cookies from the oven, immediately sprinkle them with the candy cane sugar mixture. 
11. Let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.