Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
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Festive, fun, and kissed with peppermint flavor, these Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies are a delightful nibble to add to your Christmas cookie platter. They may even become a new holiday favorite!
Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
In recent years, I have developed a love of peppermint in sweet treats and cookies. Peppermint wasn’t something I was a fan of before, but now I can’t get enough of it. This makes me excited to add these Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies to IBC’s Christmas cookie collection!
I have been waiting to make a candy cane-style cookie for years, so I’m glad to finally cross it off my list. They are everything I hoped they would be and then some!
Looking for more peppermint treats? Try these:
- Peppermint White Russian
- Peppermint Kiss Cookies
- White Chocolate Peppermint Martini
- Peppermint Espresso Martini
What made these Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies even more special is that I got to make them with my mom. She visited this past weekend and we worked on a few recipes together. When I was growing up, my mom and I would always spend a day making sugar cookies with my “gram.” My Mom would bake the cookies, my gram would add the frosting, and I would decorate them. It was nice to relive this tradition in a new way.
Baking Christmas cookies is still one of my favorite holiday activities. I have shared dozens of Christmas cookie recipes here on IBC. You can find a collection of my must-make favorite recipes HERE.
If you’ve never made a candy cane cookie like these, I definitely recommend giving them a try! And if you want a quick tip before we start baking, I highly recommend THIS gel food coloring. Once I discovered it, it’s the only food coloring I will use. It always creates such vibrant colors.
Now let’s bake!
Kitchen Tools I Recommend for This Recipe:
Whether you’re wondering what equipment you’ll need for this recipe, curious about my favorite utensils, or if you’re just looking to stock your own kitchen, these are the kitchen tools I recommend for this recipe:
Want more? You can find the list of My Ultimate Kitchen Essentials HERE.
How to Make Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the egg, peppermint extract, vanilla extract, and salt. Mix to combine.
I’ve provided a full list of the ingredients and detailed recipe instructions in a printable recipe card below.
Add the flour to the butter mixture and mix until combined.
Divide the dough in half. Wrap one piece in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator to chill. Divide the other piece into half again. Add green food coloring to one portion of the dough and red food coloring to the other portion. (I highly recommend THIS gel food coloring.) Wrap each dough separately in plastic wrap and then place them in the refrigerator to chill. The dough should be chilled for about 2 hours.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Divide the plain dough into 36 equal portions. Then, divide the red and green dough into 18 portions each. Roll each portion of all the doughs into a 4-inch rope.
Place a colored rope next to a plain rope, press together gently, then twist. Curve the dough at the top to create a candy cane shape. Repeat with the remaining ropes of dough. Place 2 inches apart onto an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the bottom edges of the cookie just start to turn golden brown and the cookie is set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about one minute before removing and placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.
Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave by heating in 30-second intervals. Stir between each interval. Continue heating and stirring until smooth. Dip the ends of the cooled cookies into the melted white chocolate. Place on a piece of wax paper and sprinkle with coordinating crushed peppermint candies.
Once the chocolate is set, store the cookies in an airtight container.
As you can see, the resulting cookies are truly festive! They taste delicious too. (You’ll have to trust me on that one until someone develops taste-o-vision.)
I hope you enjoy these Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies! Happy Baking!
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Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies Recipe:
Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 teaspoons peppermint extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- green and red gel food coloring
- 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
- red and green peppermints crushed
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the egg, peppermint extract, vanilla extract, and salt. Mix to combine.
- Add the flour to the butter mixture and mix until combined.
- Divide the dough in half. Wrap one piece in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator to chill. Divide the other piece into half again. Add green food coloring to one portion of the dough and red food coloring to the other portion. Wrap each dough separately in plastic wrap and then place them in the refrigerator to chill. The dough should be chilled for about 2 hours.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Divide the plain dough into 36 equal portions. Then, divide the red and green dough into 18 portions each. Roll each portion of all the doughs into a 4-inch rope.
- Place a colored rope next to a plain rope, press together gently, then twist. Curve the dough at the top to create a candy cane shape. Repeat with the remaining ropes of dough. Place 2 inches apart onto an ungreased baking sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the bottom edges of the cookie just start to turn golden brown and the cookie is set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about a minute before removing and placing them on a wire rack to cool completely.
- Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave by heating in 30-second intervals. Stir between each interval. Continue heating and stirring until smooth. Dip the ends of the cooled cookies into the melted white chocolate. Place on a piece of wax paper and sprinkle with coordinating crushed peppermint candies.
- Once the chocolate is set, store the cookies in an airtight container.
I never thought I would enjoy a peppermint cookie, but these were fabulous!
Same here. Now I love peppermint for the holidays.
xo Michael
I just love all of your recipes! My favorite time of the year was holiday baking with my grandmother. I recognize some of the same recipes she made just like your grandmother. Unfortunately, she passed about 25 years ago and her recipes were lost. She made the best holiday treats. She would save shoe boxes throughout the year and at Christmas would wrap and line the boxes with foil ( pre Pinterest and Hobby Lobby). We would bake every weekend and right before Christmas she would divide up the cookies and take the foil boxes to family, friends and neighbors. I loved doing this with her. So many great memories. Because of you Micheal and your wonderful recipes, I am restarting this holiday tradition (except I’ll be pinning ideas to wrap the cookies in😜). Again, thank you so much for getting me excited about baking. Have a wonderful Christmas.
PS I am searching for a wonderful orange cookie. I’m was similar to your Italian Cookies but has a light orange taste. And the icing was made with powdered sugar and orange flavoring. Any ideas?