Christmas candy canes
Christmas candy canes recipe in the christmas category
Recipe ingredients:
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup crushed peppermint candy canes or hard peppermint candies
- 1/2 cup, 1 stick, salted butter or margarine, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup plain or butter flavored shortening
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon liquid red food coloring
Recipe method:
- Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
- Have ready two ungreased baking sheets.
- In a small bowl, mix the sugar with the crushed candy. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, with an electric mixer at medium-high speed, beat together the butter, shortening, confectioners sugar, egg, vanilla and peppermint extract until light and fluffy, 2 or 3 minutes.
- With the mixer at medium-low speed, gradually add the flour, beating just until blended.
- Remove half of the dough from the bowl and set aside on a sheet of waxed paper.
- To the dough remaining in the bowl, add the red food coloring and beat until evenly colored.
- At this point both of the doughs can be tightly wrapped separately in aluminum foil and refrigerated for up to a week or frozen for up to three months. If frozen, thaw in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before proceeding.
- For each candy cane, scoop 1 teaspoonful of the plain dough and the same amount of pink dough.
- Roll each scoop between the palms of your hands to make a 4 inch rope.
- Twist the ropes together and shape into a candy cane.
- As they are made, arrange the canes on an ungreased baking sheet, spacing them about 1 inch apart.
- Bake for about 10 minutes until firm to the touch and barely golden.
- Reverse the baking sheets on the racks and from front to back once during baking.
- The moment the cookies come from the oven, sprinkle each one with the sugar and peppermint mixture.
- With a wide turner, immediately transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
- Store in a tightly covered container, separating the layers with sheets of waxed paper.