Candy Cane Cookies | Christmas Candy Cane Cookies | Christmas Cookies

A festive, delicious holiday cookie that have a rich almond flavor which is shaped like a candy cane. Candy Cane Cookies are a popular Christmas cookie. These red and white cane shaped cookies are tender sweet with a lovely buttery almond flavor. These cute little cookies are tender crisp with a buttery sweet almond flavor. There is no denying that kids love these cookies, but adults seem to enjoy them every bit as much, especially with a hot cup of tea.

Here’s candy cane cookies recipe. Recipe adapted from joyofbaking

Ingredients:-

Unsalted butter – 220 gms(room temperature)
Icing sugar – 1 cup (120 gms)
Egg yolks – 2 large(at room temperature)
Pure vanilla extract – 1 tspn
Pure almond extract – ½ tspn(optional) , you ca
All-purpose flour/plain flour – 2 ½ cups(325 gms)
Salt – ¼ tspn
Red food color – ½ tspn (either liquid food color or paste food color)
Method of preparation:-

1. Using a hand blender blend the butter until is smooth and creamy. Next add icing sugar and blend until well combined and smooth.

2. Add egg yolks, vanilla extract and almond extract if adding and whisk again.

 

3. Sieve all purpose flour and salt to gather so they are combined. Add the flour mix. Start with low speed and then increase the speed to medium and blend it until all ingredients are well combined. The dough will be slightly stiff dough, don’t worry that’s how the dough is supposed to be.

4. Divide the dough into 2 halves. To one half add red food color and using a silicon spatula mix for 5 mins until the entire dough is covered with the color. If you prefer to use your hands it’s advisable to use hand gloves.

5. Wrap the dough seperately in plastic wrap and place then in fridge for 2-3 hours minimum, this is done to firm the dough a bit which will help in rolling the shaping the candy cane easily.

6. After 3 hours remove the dough from fridge and take a walnut sized balls from both the dough and place the rest of the dough back in the fridge so they stay firm while you roll and shape the dough.

7. Flatten the 2 dough seperately wrapped in cling flim. Carefully remove the cling flim and place one dough on top of the other.

8. Cut a strip of the dough and put the remaining dough back into the fridge while you work on the cut strip

9. Put the cut strip on a clean surface and very gently twist(if the dough tends to break, gently press so the dough sticks.)Now using your finger tips roll to lengthen and then shape it to a candy cane.

10. Repeate the same with rest of the dough. The cookies will grow a bit, so leave about 3 cms gap between the cookies. Now pre-heat the overn at 190 C. While oven pre heats place the rolled candy cane in fridge , this is dont to ensure that the cookies don’t grow too much and loose it’s shape.

11. Bake the cookies at 190C for about 12 minutes or till they set and look dry and the plain coloured part of the cookie start looking pale golden.

12. Remove them from oven and let it rest in tray for 5 mins(if you try to remove from tray at this point, the cookies will break). remove them from the tray. Cool on racks and store in airtight containers for about a week. If you want to store longer, place them in zip loc bags and pop them in freezer.

13. Merry Christmas 😀

 

My Notes-
1) Do not add flour while rolling the dough, otherwise the dough logs will not stick together. If the dough starts feeling sticky while rolling, place the dough in the freezer for about 15 minutes and then work on it again.
2) Instead of almond extract you can use peppermint extract for different flavor.
3) Traditional color of candy cane is red and white, but you can get a little creative and use green and red, pink and white,…combination of colors.
4) I tried twisting the 2 dough and shaping to candy cane, but I wasn’t very happy with it. To my second half I tried this rolling and twisting method with gave very satisfactory results and the shape looked must more neater.

Here’s pic of both ways of shaping for your reference-