Festive Candy Cane Cookies Food

CANDY CANE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• In a mixer bowl or by hand, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in egg, almond extract, vanilla, and salt. Blend flour into mixture in several additions, beat until just combined.
• Remove half the dough from the bowl. Blend red food coloring into the half remaining in the bowl until the coloring is even. Cover dough a kitchen towel to keep it from drying out as you work. Use a floured teaspoon to measure 1 teaspoon each of white and red dough for each cookie. Roll into 4-inch ropes on a lightly floured surface. Place a red and white rope side-by-side, press together lightly and twist to form a spiral. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Curve top down to form handle of a candy cane. Bake until set, about 9 minutes. While the cookies are baking, put peppermint candies in a resealable plastic bag and crush into small pieces with a rolling pin. Mix the candy with the sugar. Place cooling rack over shallow pan. Immediately remove cookies from cookie sheet and gently place onto cooling rack. Sprinkle with candy/sugar mixture.
• Optional: Cool cookies, drizzle with melted chocolate, and add more candy mixture on top of chocolate.

CANDY CANE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and extract. Combine flour and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. , Divide dough in half; add 6-7 drops of food coloring to one half. Shape tablespoonfuls of each color of dough into 4-in. ropes. Place ropes side by side; lightly press ends together and twist. Place on ungreased baking sheets; curve to form canes. , Bake at 375° for 9-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Combine crushed candy canes and sugar; immediately sprinkle over cookies. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

CANDY CANE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a bowl, cream butter, shortening and sugars.
• Beat in milk, egg and extracts.
• Gradually add flour and salt.
• Set aside half of the dough.
• Divide remaining dough in half; add green food coloring to one portion and red food coloring to the other.
• Wrap dough separately in plastic wrap.
• Refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
• Roll ½ teaspoonfuls of each color of dough in to 3-inch ropes.
• Place each green rope next to a white rope; press together gently and twist.
• Repeat with red ropes and remaining white ropes.
• Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
• Curve one end, forming a cane.
• Bake at 350° for 11-13 minutes or until set.
• Cool for 2 minutes; carefully remove to wire racks.
• (Recipe courtesy: Taste of Home's Quick Cooking Magazine).

CANDY CANE COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5 and line two large baking trays with non-stick baking parchment. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl using a wooden spoon or in a stand mixer until soft, pale and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go.
• Tip in the flour, milk, vanilla bean paste and a pinch of salt, and mix everything together using a wooden spoon until you have a dough. Divide the dough into two pieces, and set one half aside. Divide that piece in half again. Colour one half with red food colouring gel and the other with green. They must be a dark, intense shade because they will lighten slightly as they bake.
• Roll golf-ball-sized pieces of the plain dough into 15 x 1cm sausages between your palms, then repeat with the red and green doughs. On a work surface, lay a plain dough sausage parallel to a red or green one. Join the bottoms together, then lightly twist along the length. Do this gently - don't be tempted to press them together or the colours may meld. One by one, carefully lift each twist of dough, place on one of the prepared trays and curl at the top to form a hooked candy cane. Repeat until all the dough is used (you should have about 12 canes), spacing them apart by about 5cm.
• Bake for 12-14 mins until set and slightly golden. Leave to cool slightly on the trays before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Will keep in an airtight container for up to three days.

FESTIVE CANDY CANE COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• Grease cookie sheets.
• Beat the first two ingredients on medium speed for 30 seconds.
• Add sugar & baking powder, then egg, milk and vanilla.
• Beat well in mixer.
• Beat in cocoa powder and as much flour as you can with the mixer.
• Stir in remaining flour.
• Divide dough in half.
• Cover, chill at least one hour.
• Working with piece of the dough at a time, roll into slightly less than 1/4 inch thickness on a floured surface.
• Using a candy cane cookie cutter cut dough.
• Place one inch apart on greased cookie sheet.
• Bake 7 - 9 minutes until firm and lightly browned.
• Remove from cookie sheet and cool on wired rack.
• Heat white chocolate and 2 tsp of shortening in small saucepan over low heat until melted, stirring often (although I microwave on low heat for 30 second intervals until melted, stirring in between).
• Pour melted chocolate into freezer quart sized ziploc bag (I used freezer kind because it was thicker). Clip a small bit off one corner to create a hole in the bag. Then gently squeeze the bag drizzling the chocolate through the hole on to the cookies.
• Sprinkle on crushed candy-canes (quickly before chocolate hardens!).
• Let stand until set.