These festive holiday cookies are a tradition at our house. Although they are not particularly delicious, they are really cute and fun to make!You can find the official recipe from Betty Crocker, although I use almond extract instead of peppermint.
Here's how it's done - you mix up the dough, then divide it into two sections. Set aside one half and tint the other half with red food coloring, like this:
You will then have two lovely lumps of dough, one white, one red.
If you've ever done ceramics, you'll like this part. Form coils from the dough by rolling it gently back and forth on a lightly floured board. I always like to tell kids about this when I teach ceramics classes: "Remember this method at Christmas time, you can do it with red and white cookie dough and make Candy Cane Cookies!"
The recipe says to make the coils or "ropes" about 4" long. I started out this way but ended up making them longer and longer for bigger cookies.
Press two pieces together and get twistin'.
You have to be careful with this step as the dough can fall apart easily.
You can then roll the twisted dough lightly to smooth it out.
Curve one end down to make a candy cane!
Place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 9-12 minutes or until the white part becomes a very light golden brown.
Be ready with your crushed peppermint candy! I unwrapped some real candy canes, stuck them in a bag, and whacked it repeatedly with a hammer. There is probably a better way to do this, but I don't know what it is.Mix your crushed candy with an equal amount of granulated sugar and sprinkle this on the hot cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. It will stick to the cookies and give you some added textural interest and peppermint flavor.
Enjoy!
I made these for the SCRAP Holiday Bazaar and Bake Sale, which happened on Saturday, and here are a few pictures from that event. Here is Lee from leethal:
Here is Liz from 1.by.Liz: 
My table looked cute:
And here I am, black Santa hat and all:
7 comments:
Hee-hee - those are so cute! too bad they're "not particularly delicious"! Love the black Santa hat, too . . .
I am totally going to make these with my grandson this weekend. Although lazy or clever me, I prefer clever, is going to buy ready made sugar cookie dough and color it. That should improve the taste!
Good idea!
I should say, they aren't bad, they just aren't really anything to write home about, taste-wise. Just your basic plain almond flavored cookies. My husband and kids think they taste great!
my mom used to make candy cane cookies every year when we were kids but stopped when my younger sister graduated. thank goodness my nephews came along and she revived the tradition! i do love them quite a lot. i used to drool over the pictures in her "betty crocker cookie book" during the summer months. and since that cook book was a relic from my childhood in the 70s, you can imagine how technicolor the imaages were! ahhhh, sweet days of yore...
you and your booth look adorable! hope you had a blast and sold lots of vinyl. i have gotta send you some pics of me and my treasured "portland" cuff. you are the record goddess!
Those are so cute! They make me feel guilty that my daughter and I are using pre-made sugar cookie sheets for our holiday cookies this year. Heehee..
Your booth looks fantastic! I am coveting your little pill containers!
Those cookies look wonderful, thanks for the directions. I think it might be best to make something that's not particularly delicious so I won't consume more than I should!
those cookies are so cute!
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