Twist, Bake, Enjoy: How To Make Festive Peppermint Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

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Candy cane cookies have been a sweet addition to holiday celebrations for generations. These treats, which are sugar cookies shaped to look like candy canes, are a delight to look at as well as to eat. Half of the dough is dyed red while the rest is left natural, and then red and white ropes of dough are twisted and shaped just like real candy canes. These extra festive cookies truly add a special touch to a holiday dessert table.

Recipe developer Michelle Bottalico has created a recipe for peppermint candy cane cookies that provides easy-to-follow steps for making these iconic treats. The dough is close to a standard sugar cookie dough, but it includes 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract for a candy cane flavor and red food coloring on part of the dough. Not everyone is a fan of peppermint extract, so reduce the amount for a more subtle peppermint note, or substitute almond extract instead. If desired, you can dress up these cookies by sprinkling crushed candy canes, peppermint hard candy, or turbinado sugar over them as soon as they come out of the oven.

For this recipe, you will need softened butter, granulated sugar, a large egg, milk, vanilla extract, peppermint extract (or sub almond extract), all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and red food coloring.

Use a fork or electric beater to mix the softened butter, sugar, egg, milk, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract together in a mixing bowl until well combined.

Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until a soft dough forms.

Quickly press the dough into a ball and cut it into two equal halves. Remove one half from the bowl.

Use a fork to mix the red food coloring into the other half of dough in the bowl until it is evenly colored red.

Shape each half of dough into a flattened ball and tightly wrap them separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Remove 1 teaspoon of dough from each ball of dough. You can refrigerate the rest of the dough while you work with small pieces so it doesn't get too soft.

Roll the pieces back and forth on a work surface to create 4-inch ropes, one white and one red. Be careful to keep the pieces the same width, even at the ends.

Lay the white and red ropes next to each other and gently twist them along the whole length. Pat with fingertips to straighten the top and sides and make the shape more uniform.

Place the twisted piece on a greased cookie sheet and curve one end of the piece to form a candy cane shape. Repeat the process to make cookies with the remaining dough.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, until just golden.

Let the cookies cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve and enjoy. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

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Some people prefer not to use artificial food dyes, but this doesn't mean that you can't get in on the holiday fun. There are plenty of natural substitutes you can use for artificial food coloring, so no artificial red dye is strictly necessary to make the candy cane magic happen.

Anyone handling red beets knows the juice stains everything red. In the case of these cookies, that's a good thing. Using the juice or puree of red beets can color dough red too. Red beet powder, on the other hand, provides all the color without any liquid. Red hibiscus powder is also a great choice for this dough, as it turns it a bright red color. The floral flavor, if it comes through the sugar, is complementary to cookies. If you have dried hibiscus petals, crush them into a powder with a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder. Red fruits can also color your recipes red. Cherry juice or puree, boiled or powdered cranberries, pomegranate juice, and red freeze dried fruits like strawberries (best in powdered form) can also be used.

Start with a little of your chosen color alternative and add more until the color is to your liking. If your ingredient is very liquidy, reduce or eliminate the milk called for in this recipe by the same amount to compensate. You can use any powdered form of natural food coloring without altering the rest of the recipe.

This sugar cookie dough is suitable for a variety of cute and tasty holiday treats. You could make regular sugar cookies by rolling out the dough and cutting out cookies with holiday cookie cutters. Leave them plain or decorate with icing and sprinkles. Make easy icebox cookies by shaping the dough into a log, rolling the log in sprinkles, and slicing it into disks. Make cookie sticks by adding ¼ cup extra flour to the dough, rolling a ½-inch high rectangle and cutting it into sticks, and baking. Dip the ends in melted chocolate and crushed peppermint candy after the sticks cool.

Another idea is to dye the dough green, roll shorter ropes, and shape them into circular wreath shapes. Colored pearl sprinkles, which look like tiny balls, are a great choice for decorating the wreaths. Or, roll the dough into balls and roll the balls in red, green, and white sprinkles. Finally, bake the dough in mini muffin tins, press the centers of the cookies down with a small bottle cap right when they come out of the oven, and fill the depressions with holiday-colored icing and sprinkles after they cool completely.

Instead of cookies, make cookie bars by using the dough as the bottom layer, adding melted chocolate in the middle, and sprinkling crushed peppermint candy on top. Similarly, the dough can be used as the crust for a holiday-themed dessert pizza.

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