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.