Candy Cane Cookies!

So, if you like a little bit of peppermint than you will like these cookies!  They are basically shortbread with a little mint extract or crushed candy canes.  But they are good!  Unfortunately these probably won't hit your plate until next Christmas season but either way I am putting them up for future reference.  You can really make these your own as well by adding whatever decorations you'd like to spruce them up - since they are so simple.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1 cup butter

1/2 tsp peppermint extract (you can also use real crushed candy canes)

red food coloring (gel works best)

Method:

Cream together sugar, butter and peppermint extract with a mixer until they are nice and fluffy.  Next add your cornstarch and flour and mix well.  Separate the dough into two equal parts and place each in a bowl.  Take one half and mix in enough food coloring to get the shade of red you desire.  Now you can wrap both in plastic wrap and chill until they are pliable, about 20 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 325F.  Now for the creative part!  You can do this several ways, but this is how we did it.  Take your tinted and untinted dough and using a melon baller or scooper, divide each dough into balls for rolling.  You can roll one of each color into a thin tube.  After one color of each is done, twist them together and shape into a candy cane.  This may seem easy at first, but you may need to give it a couple of tries to get it right.  If the dough gets too soft, put it back into the fridge for 10 minutes.

Once your done with all the dough, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.    Place the sheets in the oven for approx. 20 - 25 minutes.  Make sure that these do not burn, they should be checked on often.  You will know that they are done once they become firm but not 'browned'.

As I mentioned earlier, they may take some tries to get them to look right but once you get a technique going, you will be able to experiment with other decorations.  Enjoy!