Candy Cane Cookies

Christmas is my favorite baking season. I don't know what it is about this time of year but I love being in my kitchen making wonderful treats with a Christmas movie on the TV. There is something about this whole season that warms my heart.

I have wonderfiul memories baking Christmas cookies with my mom while growing up. We would make sugar cookies decorated with sprinkles, double dipped spritz cookies, and peanut butter bon-bons (my favorite). Once I was married I knew that I wanted to not only keep these fun baking traditions to pass on to my family (I need that bon-bon recipe, Mom!) but I also wanted to come up with favorites of my own; recipes that I pick and will be something that I can share with my kids one day.

One of my new favorites are Candy Cane Cookies. These are so much fun to make, and look impressive too. They are a little labor intensive so I prefer to make these when I have no other baking planned. They are my version from an original recipe from Good Housekeeping. You can their recipe here.

The start of this recipe is a basic cookie dough which can actually be revised to make 12 different cookies (so far I have made two of these versions and they both were really easy. Check them all out online). I made a few artistic changes to my version that I think really makes these cookies shine!

Candy Cane Christmas Cookies

Ingredients:
1 batch Basic Cookie Dough

1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

Red food coloring

1 or 2 candy canes, crushed (I add a few shakes of red sprinkles to add more color)

Instructions:

1. Prepare Basic Cookie Dough. Divide dough in half. Add peppermint extract and red food coloring to one half. (You can use as little or as much food coloring you want; just depends on how vibrant you want these to be)

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in freezer for about ten minutes.

3. Remove dough from plastic wrap. Roll sections of red dough and plain dough and twist them together. Bend one end over to make a cane and place onto cookie sheet about 1 inch apart.

4. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes or until golden-brown. Transfer to a wire rack. I sprinkle the cookies as soon as possible with the crushed candy cane to make sure that it sticks.

5. Let cool and enjoy with a cup of hot cocoa!

I love, love, love these cookies! The recipe is so easy and it doesn't take much to make them look amazing. I hope you get a chance to try these and maybe add a new tradition to your Christmas baking.

Happy Holiday Baking!