As a little girl, my Aunt Blanche would designate a special day in the weeks leading up to Christmas to pick me up from school. Afterwards, we would go to her house and make all kinds of Christmas cookies in her warm kitchen. It was always a day that I looked forward to, and I’ll always have fond memories of those Christmas cookie workshops.
While all of the cookies we made were unique and beloved, my favorite were her candy cane cookies. They looked like candy canes, but tasted even better! I will always remember rolling out the ropes of dough with her and twisting them together to form the candy cane shape. This recipe is creative, delicious, and beautifully festive! So get together with the people you care about and have a Christmas cookie day–the memories will last a lifetime, even if the cookies are too good to last long.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 a cup of softened butter
- 2.5 cups of all purpose flour
- 1/2 a cup of shortening
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of red food coloring
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup of crushed candy canes
- 1.5 teaspoons of almond extract
- 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- In one mixing bowl, combine the butter, shortening, confectioners’ sugar, egg, almond extract, and vanilla. After combining, add the flour and salt.
- Divide the cookie dough into two halves. Color one of the halves with the red food coloring.
- With about a teaspoon from each half of the dough, form a 4 inch rope, rolling it on a lightly floured board. Then pinch a red and a white rope together before giving the two a twist and a bend to form the candy cane.
- On an ungreased cookie sheet, bake for about 9 minutes… just until set and lightly browned on the edges. Sprinkle immediately with some of the mixture of the crushed candy and sugar. Then remove from the sheet to cool.
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