When Sarah picked peppermint as our ingredient, I knew
immediately that I was going to make my Grandma’s candy cane cookies. She’s made these every year for as long as I
can remember. The cookies themselves are
a basic shortbread-like cookie, but what really makes them are the bright red
stripes of peppermint frosting.
I took a few liberties with the recipe for the dough. I didn’t have much shortening on hand so I
replaced half of it with butter (which I had tons of after overbuying for
making gingerbread). I also increased
the amount of vanilla extract and left out the butter flavoring (since I don’t
have it and I had added butter). The
result of subbing in the butter was a more puffy and tender cookie than the
crisp one I’m used to. The butter added
a nice flavor that I liked, but I missed the crunch. Next time I may sub only ¼ of the shortening
for butter.
Once the dough is made, Grandma uses her cookie press to
make cane shapes using a circular die with jagged edges. I was excited to use my cookie press for the
first time and had the dough loaded before I realized that of the twelve dies
mine came with, none of them was the one I needed. Luckily, I own a huge star tip for my piping
icing. Unluckily, my hand gave out after
piping about three dozen of the candy canes that way. I understand now why cookies presses need
metal parts – that dough is stiff! I
decided to freeze the rest of the dough for other applications in January.
I went ahead and baked the cookies that I had while I made the
frosting. The key is to add enough peppermint extract to get a strong enough
flavor to stand up to the plain cookie.
Remember that you will only be putting a small amount of frosting on
each cookie. Once cooled, I piped on
stripes and took them to a Christmas party where they were promptly devoured to
rave reviews! It’s so nice to be able to
have a taste of my childhood at Christmas.
Candy Cane Cookies
adapted from Grandma Cris
Makes 5 dozen
Cookies:
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. Crisco
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
1/4 c. milk
2 tbsp. vanilla
Makes 5 dozen
Cookies:
3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. Crisco
1/2 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
1/4 c. milk
2 tbsp. vanilla
Icing:
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tbsp. butter, softened
1.5-2 c. milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla
Red food coloring
Peppermint extract to taste
1. Cream together butter, Crisco, and sugar. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add remaining ingredients.
2. Transfer dough to a piping bag and pipe into candy cane shapes onto a lightly greased or lined cookie sheet.
3. Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes.
4. To make frosting, sift powdered sugar and mix in all other ingredients.
5. Once cooled, pipe lines of frosting onto cookies.
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tbsp. butter, softened
1.5-2 c. milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla
Red food coloring
Peppermint extract to taste
1. Cream together butter, Crisco, and sugar. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Add remaining ingredients.
2. Transfer dough to a piping bag and pipe into candy cane shapes onto a lightly greased or lined cookie sheet.
3. Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes.
4. To make frosting, sift powdered sugar and mix in all other ingredients.
5. Once cooled, pipe lines of frosting onto cookies.
