Candy Cane Cookies

Posted: December 3, 2009 | Author: Bakezilla | Filed under: Bakezilla | No Comments »

Okay, so I’ll admit that this is something I haven’t baked in a long time. But, at the moment, I am taking a much needed study break and being nostalgic about food, Christmas, etc. Because I love to bake, I bought a Holiday baking magazine (okay, a few special edition holiday food magazines… I may have a magazine addiction issue), but was thrilled to see a picture of my favorite Christmas cookies for childhood. My Grammy made these (and a slew of other cookies) every year, and let us kids help her. They are Candy Cane Cookies, and they look like this:

I had no idea as a kid, but apparently these are fairly popular. Here is my Grandmother’s recipe, exactly as she wrote it:
CANDY CANE COOKIES

1 c. soft shortening (half butter)                          1 t. vanilla
1 c. sifted confectioners’ sugar                             2 l/2 c. flour
1 egg                                                                           1 t. salt

1 l/2 t. almond flavoring                                        ½ t. red food coloring

Topping: equal parts: crushed peppermint candy canes and sugar

Heat oven to 375. Mix well: shortening, sugar, egg, flavoring. Mix flour, salt and stir in. Divide dough in half. Blend red food coloring into one half. Roll 1 t. each color dough onto lightly floured board into a strip about 4 inches long. Place strips side by side; press lightly together and twist like a rope. Put onto ungreased baking sheet, curve top down for top of cane. Bake 9 minutes till lightly browned. Remove while still warm, sprinkle with mixture of ½ crushed peppermint stick candy and l/2 sugar. Makes about 4 dozen.

Success tip: make complete cookies one at a time. If all the dough of one color is twisted first the little rolls become too dry to twist.

Some modern revisions (I made these with Grammy circa 1989, and my mom apparently also made them with her as a child). One, you can buy soft shortening, no need to mix butter with regular shortening these days. I’ve seen people just use sanding sugar instead of crushed peppermint bits (which you can also buy, she used to beat the crap out of candy canes with a rolling pin).

The fun and kid-helper friendly part of these cookies was making the twists. She used to tell us to make “snakes” with the dough, and twist them together. Our versions and her versions looked a bit dissimilar… she was a perfectionist and would make beautifully shaped cookies, but it all tasted the same, and making these is still one of my warmest holiday memories.

What about you guys? What are your best food-related holiday memories? How about favorite cookie recipes?

Upcoming for December: This weekend, making chocolate-mint cupcakes with sugared mint leaves for a b-day party, and a promise of Hannukah Doughnuts (a non-traditional twist on Sufganiyot).