Get in the holiday spirit with these festive and incredibly easy sugar cookies.
Growing up, these candy cane cookies were a Christmas classic. It was never officially the holidays in our house without em! As a kid I loved rolling out the red and white dough into long ropes, or what we called “snakes”, right before twisting them into candy cane spirals. My favorite part was topping each cookie with just the right amount of sugar sprinkles before baking.
My mom’s recipe is off an old magazine clipping from the 80s. After constant abuse over the years with flour and dough, it finally had to be placed in a plastic sleeve. The recipe itself is very simple, but the flavors cheerful and always comforting. I hope your family enjoys these cookies as much as ours!
- Basic Butter-Cookie Dough Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter or margerine, room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Cookie Candy Canes Ingredients:
- 1 recipe Basic Butter-Cookie Dough
- ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
- ¾ teaspoon red food coloring
- 1 egg white, slightly beaten
- red sugar crystals
- Basic Butter-Cookie Dough Recipe:
- In a medium bowl, beat together butter or margerine, sugar, egg and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour and baking powder, beating until blended. Use dough immediately as recipe directs or wrap and store. May be stored in refrigerator up to 1 week.
- Cookie Candy Canes Recipe:
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Prepare Basic Butter-Cookie Dough, adding peppermint extract along with vanilla extract.
- Divide dough into 2 equal portions.
- Stir red food coloring into 1 portion of the dough, beating or kneading until well blended. For each cookie, shape 1-2 teaspoons of each color dough into a 4 inch rope, rolling back and forth on waxed paper to get smooth, even ropes.
- In order to make sure the white part of the candy cane doesn't turn red, roll out the white and red "snakes" separately before twisting them together. Place 1 red rope and 1 white rope side by side, press together lightly and twist. Place one inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Curve one end of the cookie down to form handle of the candy cane. Brush with the slightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with red sugar.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges begin to brown lightly. Immediately remove cookies from baking sheets, cool on racks.
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