Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
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These peppermint candy cane cookies are light, buttery, and full of peppermint flavor. The twisted candy cane cookies look so fun for Christmas parties and for cookie exchange trays to share with family and friends!
Table of Contents
Why We Love Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
- Great Cookie For Kids To Help– Kids love rolling the dough and twisting together the cookies. It’s a fun holiday activity to spend time together, and they go great with a cup of candy cane hot cocoa.
- Fun For Christmas– These cookies are so fun for Christmas, and their seasonal peppermint flavor is perfect for the holidays.
- Great On Cookie Party Trays– These cookies look so cute on a cookie tray. Their colorful dough and shape stand out and look so festive for any party or make great gifts.
Making Other Christmas Goodies? Try these Peppermint Hot Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies with the gooey chocolate ganache center, or these super fudgy peppermint bark brownies. White Chocolate Peppermint Bark, colorful cream cheese mints, or rich and creamy Homemade Peppermint Patties both look festive on any holiday platter.
Ingredients For Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
For The Cookie Dough
- 1 cup butter – softened Using unsalted butter allows you to control how much salt is in the final cookies. If you use salted butter, remove the salt from this recipe.
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 egg
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For Decorating The Cookies
- Red gel food coloring – It is much harder to get a holiday red color with a liquid red food coloring. Often liquid food coloring produced a pink colored dough. Gel food coloring is much more concentrated for vibrant colors.
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons crushed candy canes – About 2 candy canes crushed. You can crush the candy canes in a zip-top bag with your hands or a rolling pin.
How To Make Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
To Make The Cookies Dough
- In a large bowl cream together softened butter, 1 cup granulated sugar and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until fully mixed. Add the egg, vanilla, and peppermint to the butter and sugar. Mix until these wet ingredients are fully mixed.
- In a separate mixing bowl mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Mix well until a dough forms and all the dry ingredients are well mixed into the dough.
- Remove the cookie dough with your hands onto a clean counter and roll the dough into a log shape. Divide dough into two equal halves.
- In the middle of one half of the dough, add red gel food coloring. Gently knead it to mix the color in (see notes below.) Add more red gel food coloring as needed to make it a red color.
- Wrap each dough color in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.
Twisting And Baking The Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking oil.
- In a small bowl mix together two tablespoons. of granulated sugar and the crushed candy cane.
- Scoop out about a teaspoon from both the red and the uncolored dough.
- Roll each piece of dough into long ropes with your hands until they are about five inches long.
- Twist the cookie dough ropes together.
- Shape the red and white twisted dough into a hook shape and place onto a cookie sheet.
- Leave about an inch of space between cookies on the pan. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes.
- Sprinkle the warm cookies with the candy cane and granulated sugar mixture while warm, then allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for about two to three minutes.
- Remove the cookies and place on a wire rack or clean towel to finish cooling. Enjoy!
Variations For Candy Cane Twist Cookies
- Make The Dough Green– Green candy canes are found pretty often at the holidays too. Making green candy canes would be just as much festive fun.
- Make Rainbow Colored Candy Canes– You can really make the dough any color you want! Simply split half the dough into to multiple pieces and mix different colors into the dough. Make orange, purple, pink or blue candy canes by then twisitng them with plain dough.
- Swap Peppermint For Spearmint– Spearmint has a slightly different minty flavor, but you can swap
- Don’t Use Mint At All- Just because these candy canes are mint shaped doesn’t mean they have to taster like peppermint. Swap in more vanilla or almond extract in place of the peppermint.
- Drizzle With Chocolate- Chocolate peppermint is one of my favorite combinations! Once the cookies cool completly, melt some chocolate on half power in the microwave. Then drizzle these cookies with chocolate and top with bits of candy cane to make this treat even more delicious!
How Do I Store These Candy Cane Cookies?
Store these candy cane cookies in an airtight container for 4-5 days on the counter.
Can I Make This Cookie Dough Ahead Of Time?
Yes you can make this cookie dough ahead of time. I recommend coloring the dough with food coloring before placing it in the refrigerator. The dough can be left refrigerated for 2-3 days before baking,
Can I Freeze These Cookies?
You can freeze the cookie dough for these cookies ahead of time with no issues. Color the dough with food coloring first as it will be easier, then wrap the dough in plastic wrap and/or freezer paper.
Place in a freezer zip-top bag. When you’re ready to make the cookies, let the dough defrost on the counter for a few hours so you can form the cookies.
You can also freeze the cookie dough already made into the candy cane shapes before baking. I recommend freezing on a cookie sheet first, then place in a freezer zip-top bag.
Once they are in the candy cane shape, you can freeze them straight from frozen. The cookies may need an extra minute or two in the oven to bake.
While the cookies can be frozen once baked, it’s not my favorite. The flavor and texture of the cookies will taste better if they are eaten after they’ve been baked.
Other Cookie Recipes You Will Love
Toffee Cookies With Chocolate Chips – Buttery and delicious, these toffee cookies are amazing!
Soft Chewy Gingerbread Cookies– These delicious cookies have all the warm, mouthwatering spices used in Gingerbread rolled into a soft and chewy cookie. These cookies can also be decorated SO cute for Christmas!
Stained Glass Cookies– Pretty sugar cookies with a colored center that you can see right through. Super fun for kids!
Chocolate Cake Mix Cookies– Make these quick and easy chocolately cookies for any occasion!
Christmas Tree Meringue Cookies– Sweet, slightly crunchy, melt in your mouth meringue cookies shaped like green Christmas trees right on the plate, adorable!
Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
Ingredients
For The Cookie Dough
- 1 cup butter usalted, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 egg
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
For Decorating The Cookies
- red gel food coloring
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons crushed candy canes About 2 candy canes crushed
Instructions
To Make The Cookies Dough
- In a large bowl cream together softened butter, 1 cup granulated sugar and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until fully mixed. Add the egg, vanilla, and peppermint to the butter and sugar. Mix until these wet ingredients are fully mixed.
- In a separate mixing bowl mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Mix well until a dough forms and all the dry ingredients are well mixed into the dough.
- Remove the dough with your hands onto a clean counter and roll the dough into a log shape. Cut the dough into two equal halves.
- In the middle of one half of the dough, add red gel food coloring. Gently knead it to mix the color in (see notes below.) Add more red gel food coloring as needed to make it a red color.
- Wrap each dough color in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.
Twisting And Baking The Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking oil.
- In a small bowl mix together two tablespoons. of granulated sugar and the crushed candy cane.
- Scoop out about a teaspoon from both the red and the uncolored dough.
- Roll each piece of dough into long ropes with your hands until they are about five inches long.
- Twist the dough ropes together.
- Shape the twisted dough into a hook shape and place it onto a cookie sheet.
- Leave about an inch of space between cookies on the pan. Bake cookies for 8-10 minutes.
- Sprinkle the warm cookies with the candy cane and granulated sugar mixture while warm, then allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for about two to three minutes.
- Remove the cookies and place on a wire rack or clean towel to finish cooling. Enjoy!
Notes
Mixing The Food Coloring Into the Dough
Food coloring can stain your hands, especially gel food coloring which is more concentrated in color.- Mixing the food coloring by hand- Add the color carefully to the middle of the dough and knead from the outside to the center to mix, similar to mixing bread dough. It is recommended to use plastic gloves to avoid staining your skin when mixing in food coloring.
- Mixing the food coloring with a mixer– You can also add the food coloring to the dough with an electric mixer. Place half the dough back in the bowl and mix carefully. Take care to only mix enough to mix in the color evenly. Overmixing the dough can cause the cookies to become tough.
Nutrition
Did You Make This?
I would love to see it! Share your thoughts with me in the comments below!
