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Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies taste like peppermint candy but are simply candy cane flavored and shaped sugar cookies. They the best Christmas cookies!
Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies are some of the best Christmas cookies I’ve ever made. They require a little more work than your typical roll and cut sugar cookie and are definitely not as easy to make as a quick five minute fudge, but I guarantee that these peppermint cookies will be loved by all.
If you’re new to my blog, welcome! If you’ve visited before, you’ll know that I’m not only a food snob, but I can be a little OCD about food at times. Do these candy cane cookies have to be exact? No. Do I get completely freaked out about proportions and perfectly striped and shaped candy canes? Yes. Should I? No. Am I able to overcome my weirdness and let my kids attempt to unsuccessfully roll one of these bad boys into a candy cane sugar cookie shape? Yes, but I have to look away and reassure myself that they all can’t be perfect. Sheesh, I’m so weird.
How to make Candy Cane Cookies:
- I hate how freakish I am when I make my candy cane cookies. When I divide the dough, I weigh it to ensure the white and the red are the same size.
- You might wonder if there’s actual peppermint candy in the dough, but the peppermint flavor comes from extract and not actual peppermint candy.
- I get crazy proud of myself when I can roll them out into a perfect square and then cut a beautifully straight line down the middle.
- I’ll give myself a high five when I can twist the cookie, roll it to uniform thickness with perfectly spaced stripes. Okay, okay, the examples in this post aren’t perfect, but you get the idea. The fun part is that you shape the cookies yourself rather than use a candy cane cookie cutter.
- And finally, I love to maximize my baking sheet real estate so I alternate direction when I bake the candy cane cookies.
Total obsessive compulsive behavior. What can I say? The result is a perfectly crisp, yet perfectly soft, peppermint flavored cookie with just the right amount of sweet. What do you consider the best Christmas cookies? I’m always on the hunt for amazing Christmas cookie recipes, so please share your ideas and be sure to check out all of my Christmas treats at the bottom of this post!
Kitchen tools used to make these Candy Cane Cookies:
Kitchen scale: I started off using a 5 pound scale and quickly upgraded to the 11 pound scale. It’s worth it to have the larger size, especially if you garden and want to keep track of your annual harvest quantities!
Stand mixer: This is a kitchen must-have. I use mine almost any time I bake. It’s one of the few appliances I will allow to always remain on the counter rather than be put away.
Silicone spatula: Any time you’re working with a batter, you’ll need a good quality scraper. These are the ones I use because they do the job right and don’t leave a nasty silicone taste when I like the batter off at the end!
Baking Sheet: I’ve been using this one for years. I love that it’s made in the USA, the sides are high enough to keep anything from spilling over, and it’s warp resistant.
Silpat Silicone Baking Mat: Any time I bake cookies, I always use my Silpat. Turn ANY pan into a non-stick surface and save time cleaning up!
Rolling Pin: This is the best rolling pin I’ve ever owned. It has great weight which means you have to push less, and the handles are shaped to your hands.
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Pin ItPeppermint Candy Cane Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature (2 sticks)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons peppermint extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 drops red food coloring
- 1/2 cup decorating sugar red, white, your choice but large crystals work best
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine flour and salt. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. Scrape the sides, add the granulated sugar and powdered sugar and continue to beat until very light in color and fluffy, another 2-3 minutes. Scrape sides again and add the egg yolks, peppermint extract and vanilla, beat on low speed until well combined.
- With the mixer running on low speed, spoon in the flour and salt mixture until all of the dry ingredients have been added and fully combine. Do not over mix.
- At this point, remove half of the dough and place on a sheet of plastic wrap. If you're a perfectionist, you should have about 28 ounces total, so you'd want to take out about 14 ounces of the dough. Add food coloring to remaining dough in bowl and mix just until the color has evenly blended in. Add the red dough to a separate piece of plastic wrap.
- Shape both dough balls into a square that's about 5-6 inches in length. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight (or longer if you're making them ahead of time).
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat.
- Roll each dough to a 9x9 inch square, then stack them on one another and roll to seal them together. Cut the dough down the center and refrigerate both halves. After the dough has chilled a bit, after maybe 15 minutes, take out one of the halves and start cutting short strips that are about 1/4 inch thick. Roll each strip to lengthen and slightly twist at the same time. Roll in decorating sugar and then lay out on baking sheet in the shape of a candy cane. Refrigerate or freeze the baking sheet until the dough is cold again prior to baking (this will help prevent them from spreading while they bake).
- Bake until just slightly brown on the bottoms, 13 to 15 minutes. Rotate your baking sheet half way though if your oven doesn't bake evenly. Remove from oven and allow to cool on sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Continue baking process with remaining dough, keeping it cool until ready to bake (otherwise your cookies expand too much).
- Store in airtight container and segregate from other cookies as the peppermint flavor will transfer.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Very disappointed that I gave this recipe a try, even after all the bad reviews. The cookies expanded so much, they didn’t even look like candy canes anymore, the dough was so sticky, which made it very hard to work with, and they crumbled as soon as I tried to pick them up to eat one. Should have found a different recipe.
I’m sorry to hear that! I’m not sure why they didn’t work for you. I find that the colder the dough, the less they spread. Also, whenever I’m baking, if the dough seems too sticky I’ll always add enough flour to make them easy to handle. They worked for me… sorry they didn’t work for you!
They spread because of all the butter. I make mine with 1/2 shortening and 1/2 butter and once they really shaped I chill them in the fridge and bake them cold. They keep their shape much better, Then I “paint” on a thin layer of Karo light corn syrup and sprinkle with crushed candy cane candy. Been making them that way for over 40 years. Good luck Maria.
My cookies did not look anything like yours. Don’t know what I did. Maybe I’ll try next Christmas. Boo hoo.
Sorry to hear that, Chris. Was the dough really cold? Even room temp dough will spread out into ugly cookies.
Wow…..followed directions exactly. My cookies totally spread all over. So disappointed as they are so time consuming. Kept dough chilled, kept rolled cookies in fridge until ready to bake, but still spread. Don’t know what went wrong.
I’m sorry to hear that, Sharon! The only recommendation I can think of is to chill them again after rolling. The colder the dough, the more they will hold their shape. We keep our house pretty cold… maybe that’s why mine didn’t spread? Krissy
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nombreuses situations.
These taste really good, but I could not get them to roll and stay together, and certainly not twist and stay together, and definetly not curve into a cane and stay together. The dough was sticky and slimy, even though I had it in the fridge overnight and cut, rolled, twisted very quickly. I ended up with white and pink sort of twisted peppermint cookies that spread out like crazy when baking.
Hi Melissa, Was the dough cold when you tried to shape it and bake it? I know that if I let it sit out too long that it will really expand in the oven and the way to make it hold its shape while cooking is to cook cold dough vs room temp. I’ve made these cookies 3-4 times and they’ve always turned out, even thought the rolling/twisting process can take some patience. Are you sure you followed the recipe exactly? -Krissy
These baked into a beautiful and lovely cookie. It may have been my peppermint extract, but using the amount in the recipe was too much for me. But it was nothing a little chocolate couldn’t fix. I dipped the bottoms in chocolate and it was a great combo. Thanks for the super cute cookie idea. My family will gobble them up next week for Christmas!
Oh my! I never thought about how good these would be dipped in chocolate. YUM!
What am I doing wrong. The dough is crumbly and the candy canes are breaking apart.
Hmmm… I’m trying to think what may have happened. Did you really cream the butter well? If you did, that’s a good thing. After you cut the strips, were they exposed to air for a long time? I’ve always cut and twisted reasonably quick. I’ve had mine crack just a bit but that’s usually only if I cut too many strips and they sit out exposed to the air while I’m waiting to get them in the oven. -Krissy
Hands down these are the best Christmas inspired cookies I have seen on the web lately. They look so cute and I bet they taste delicious too – pinned!
These candy cane cookies are so perfectly done and pretty!
I wish I had read the comments first. The dough was fine but even after chilling the dough 30 mins after shaping it spread across the whole pan. 2 batches wasted. Shaped the rest and will chill overnight and bake right out the fridge. I hope it helps.
Sorry that happened! I’ll update the recipe with those recommendations.
Hi Krissy, These look really good. I can’t wait to try making these with my daughter. She’s been baking with me for a few years now and loves it. We have our favorites but, I think this would be a great addition. Pinned for later.