This year, indulge in these sweet candy cane cookies – perfect for any Christmas spread!
These cute cookies don’t just look like candy canes, but they taste like them too. It is really easy to make these minty little cookies.
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Ahh, the possibilities of sugar cookies.
Cookies are truly the epitome of the Christmas season. Do you like to hand out cookies to your neighbors? Maybe you enjoy setting them out for Santa or just eating them while you watch Christmas movies.
No matter what, these are the best Christmas cookies you can make!
The Best Twisted Sugar Cookies
These little twisted cookies taste just like peppermint candy canes. They are fun to dip in buttercream frosting and look perfectly festive on your holiday cookie platter.
What You Need
Here’s what you’ll need from the store. There is also a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post with this list of ingredients and the simple steps to create these red and white cookies.
Kitchen Supplies Needed
Ingredients Needed
- Unsalted Butter
- Granulated Sugar
- Egg
- Peppermint Extract
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Red Gel Food Coloring
Sugar cookies are a great option because they’re incredibly versatile. My candy cane cookies are a fantastic treat for this time of the year. They give a fun twist (literally!) to the traditional Christmas dessert. Full of flavor and color, these little delights are tons of fun to make with the kids.
Tips For Making Candy Cane Cookies
So, how do you make sugar cookies? Well, the good news is that my recipe is extremely easy to whip up – and yields impressive results! Recently, I’ve been having fun shaping and molding my sugar cookie dough. Traditionally, sugar cookies are cut out into shapes with cookie cutters. However, I think giving them a 3D shape has given my recent batches some uniqueness (like my Witch Finger Cookies and Bone Sugar Cookies).
Chill The Dough First
Before you add the food coloring and separate the dough into balls, I suggest letting the cookie dough chill in the refrigerator for about an hour. This will make the dough less sticky and easier to roll out.
Twist Red and White Cookie Dough
Roll the balls of dough into snakes and then twist the red and white dough together.
At this point, you can either let it stay with a loose twist look or you can combine the two colors of dough together a little better.
Shape Into Sticks or Candy Canes
I personally like to leave them as sticks because they look so much better. As these cookies bake, they won’t maintain their thin shape – they kind of spread out as they bake.
If you shape them into a “J” shape – like traditional candy canes – they will have a full look.
This recipe makes two dozen cookies! With only 8 simple ingredients, this is a really easy recipe to add to your Christmas baking list!
Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
Equipment
- Baking Sheet
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
- 1 stick Unsalted Butter softened
- 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 large Egg
- 1/2 tsp Peppermint Extract
- 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Red Food Coloring
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and egg. Add peppermint extract.
- In a separate bowl, sift together all dry ingredients.
- Slowly add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until cookie dough forms.
- Wrap cookie dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least one hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Remove chilled cookie dough from fridge and let sit for 5 minutes.
- Divide cookie dough in two and color one of the halves with red gel food coloring. Knead until completely tinted.
- Roll out both cookie dough colors into small spheres, about 1 ½ inches in diameter
- For one cookie, you’ll need one sphere of each color. Roll each one into small logs, about 3 inches long and half an inch in width.
- Press both cookie dough logs together at the top, so they’re attached. Twist them around each other.
- Roll the cookie dough twist so that they’re completely incorporated with one another – this will create a smooth candy cane cookie and results in a “rod” about 5 inches long.
- Continue for the rest and place each one carefully on lined baking sheet.
- Bake for about 12 to 14 minutes. Serve with your favorite cookie buttercream dip.
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More Christmas Treats
If your kids enjoyed these cute candy cane cookies, then they will have fun making these Christmas treats too!
I will definitley have to add these to my christmas cookie exchange line up! I am sure they will be a big hit.
oh my goodness im going to have to make these over the weekend with my kids! how fun is this 🙂 YUM
I can’t wait to give this recipe a try. I know my kiddos are going to love making this. It looks so yummy.
These candy cane cookies look so delicious and festive. The recipe seems easy enough to recreate too, which I love!!
My grandmother use to make these for us. She’d make a hook on the top but I think the straight rod is even better. I don’t know she did it, but the dough was so lightly peppermint. It wasn’t until you ate the whole thing that the peppermint came through.
I am SO excited that it’s the right season for candy cane and peppermint dessert recipes! These are my favorite flavors!
I absolutely love this fun holiday cookie idea! Perfect for the annual cookie exchange. They look delicious!
Wow, this looks really good! I think it will go well with a hot chocolate drink. Indeed perfect for the upcoming holiday.
I love the idea of making candy cane cookies instead of serving candy cane to the kids. This is definitely something that I’ll make over the holidays!
My kids always loved these cookies, but I never made frosting to dip them in. I bet that makes them even better!
Love how festive those cookies look. Bet they are delicious too. I can’t wait to start baking for the Holidays.
These look so cute! I love candy canes but I sneeze the whole time I’m eating them. My mom was the same way.
Yes for candy cane Christmas party in our family is not complete without it. Kids and adults can relate to it. I cant wait to try this recipe soon.
These are so cute. I’m definitely going to try these because I love all things candy cane.
What a fun idea! These are so cute and would be fun to make. Nice to bake something unique.
I love the holidays for this reason alone – Cookies! I will have to try to add these to my Holiday cookie linkeup
These cookies look so good and beautiful! I think my daughter would love to try this recipe!
Now those look really yummy. They would go great with some coffee. I will attempt to make these, I think they would be perfect for the holidays.