These candy cane cookies are beautiful and also really delicious. It’s an excellent weekend project and you can even hang them as decorations on your Christmas tree.
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Candy Cane Cookies
These candy cane cookies are beautiful and also delicious, you can’t ask for much more from a cookie, right? I got this idea from my friend Caro Rocco who made this cookie design last year and I couldn’t get them out of my head. The twirl of the colours isn’t THAT easy if I’m being honest. You have to be a bit careful and patient so that they don’t break. However, once you get the hang of it, they become a breeze.
Important tips
Here are a few tips that I consider important when making these candy cane cookies for Christmas:
- When you roll out the colours separately, don’t use an excessive amount of flour on the surface, just enough to prevent them from sticking to it. If the individual colours have too much flour on them, they won’t stick to each other.
- When twirling the colours, do it slowly and carefully to prevent the dough from breaking. Once they’re together, it’s then easy for them to stick together and from then on you can use more flour if you wish.
- If you feel that the stripe on the cane is too long, you can roll both ends of the log in opposite directions. This will make the candy cane cookies more stripey.
- It’s important to use gel food colouring instead of liquid to dye the red half of the dough. Liquid food colouring isn’t as intense in colour and would add too much liquid to the dough.
Variations
These candy cane cookies can also be made using green gel food colouring or even making half red and the other half green. Of course, you can also use any other colour that you like. Another alternative that works really well is to paint them with egg white and a tiny bit of water (a thin layer) before baking them and adding tiny shiny sprinkles. Use your creativity! If you love Christmas recipes, check out my Christmas Special section.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 110 g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 100 g icing sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or essence
- ½ tsp salt
- 220 g all-purpose flour
For the red part
- 2-4 drops red gel food colouring
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
Instructions
For the dough
- In a bowl, beat the butter and the sugar using a whisk or an electric mixer.
- Add the egg and vanilla and mix again.
- Add the salt and flour and mix using a spatula or keep using your electric mixer.
- Once the dough comes together, weigh it out and divide it into two parts.
For the red half
- Add a bit of food colouring at a time until it's very red. Then add the flour to adjust the texture.
For assembling
- Take a bit of dough of each colour and roll them out into a thin log. Dust very little flour on the surface because if these logs have too much flour on the outside, they won't stick to each other later.
- Place the logs one next to the other and twirl them. The dough will want to break so be careful and gentle. Once completely intertwined, roll the log back and forth to stick them together. This will also make a smooth surface.
- To accentuate the design more, you can roll each side in opposite directions, which makes the design become tighter. Always do this nice and slowly.
- Cut strips of approximately 14cm/5.5in and place them on a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silicone mat. Bend the tip to make the cane shape. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
- Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 180°C/350°F for 10-12min, we don't want them to become golden to keep the stripe effect.
