Food and memory are closely intertwined, especially at the holidays. Stoic Matt gets a little weepy as he remembers making these with his mother, who hung a few on the tree--and pretended to be surprised when they disappeared!
Makes 4 dozen.
Using your mixer, beat the butter until softened. Add the powdered sugar and beat until fluffy.
Add the egg, vanilla, and peppermint, and beat well.
Add flour and salt and mix thoroughly.
Divide dough in half and mix food coloring into one half. Shape each half into balls, cover, and chill about 30 minutes.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
Roll the plain dough, about a teaspoonful at a time, into a 4-inch rope. Repeat with the red dough. Place a plain and a red rope side by side and twist together, then pinch the ends to seal. Shape twisted ropes into canes and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
Bake 8 - 10 minutes or until done; bottoms of the cookies will be lightly browned. Remove and cool and on a wire rack.
Mix the powdered sugar, peppermint, and enough water to make a think glaze; brush on cooled cookies.
Since I made these during the hot summer, I found the dough needed to be kept refrigerated and removed a bit at a time to work with. After forming the candy cane cookies and placing them on baking sheets, I chilled for ten minutes before baking as directed.
I used scraps of the leftover cookie dough to marble together then formed candy cane cookies.
The glaze adds another delicious layer of peppermint flavor, however it does partially cover up the vivid red color of the cookie. You can brush the underside of the cookies with the glaze and leave the tops intact, or pipe thickened glaze in decorative patterns on top of the cookie.
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