Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

Candy cane sugar cookies are recipe #16 of our “24 Days of Christmas” Holiday series where I share 24 recipes over 24 days as a virtual advent countdown to Christmas. Christmas is my favourite holiday, especially when it comes to baking, and I think there are endless creations that we can come up with to reflect the holidays. All 24 holiday recipes will be shared across instagram, tiktok and here on the blog where you can print off the full recipe for your baking pleasure!

The Recipe

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1.5 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 6-10 drops red food colour

These candy cane sugar cookies are so much easier than they look! And they are so festive that they are sure to be a crowd pleaser. Nothing about this recipe is fancy, it really is a combination of your pantry staples combined in a festive way. Long story short, you essentially make two separate batches of sugar cookie dough, one with a few drops of red food colouring, and then you roll out the dough in to a long log about 2″ thick, slice in to roughly 8″ pieces and then pinch and twist them until you form a candy cane!! Easy, right? It really is.

The Trick for Twisting

I would definitely recommend heading to my instagram page to watch the short video of me making these cookies, as it is a little easier to interpret compared to words. I will give you the run down though the best I can!

You are going to have two separate balls of the same dough for this recipe, but one with red food colouring to form the red component of the candy cane. Using a rolling pin or your hands you are going to separate each ball of dough in to a few small chunks and then roll in to a long tube like shape … think a skinny snake or log… LOL. Do this to both the natural dough and the red dough. Then cut a roughly 8″ long piece of each colour that will form your candy cane! You can do anything length, this will determine the size of your candy cane. Pinch a red and a white end of the rolled out tube of dough and then twist the dough around each-other. Once twisted, hold either end of the dough and twist it again in your hands to tighten the twist… Like I said, this is hard to explain, but I hope you get the gist!

Once twisted, form them in to the hook shape to create your candy cane, pressing it down a little to flatten it on the bottom.

Once you have formed your candy canes press them on to a parchment lined baking tray and bake! Let them cool completely before removing from the baking tray and you should have no trouble with them being fragile.

How To Make

• Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F and grabbing all of your ingredients. Also grab a parchment lined baking tray.
• In an electric mixer, combine room temperature butter, sugar and vanilla and mix until well combined.
• Add the egg to your wet mixture and combine thoroughly.
• Combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a separate bowl and then gradually add this to your wet mixture. Combine this well until a ball of dough forms, I recommend using the flat paddle attachment for your mixer.
• Once the dough has formed, remove about half of the dough and set aside. To the remaining half of dough, add 6-18 drops of red food colouring and continue to mix the dough on medium speed in your electric mixer until the colour is evenly distributed.
• Once you have your two balls of dough, one red and one natural, it is time to form the candy canes!
• Start by separating your balls of dough in to a few smaller chunks. Using either your hands or a rolling pin roll out a chunk of dough into a long snake like tube…. about 2″ thick. Cut this into 8″ long chunks. Do this with both colours of dough until you have a few tubes of each colour.
• Grabbing a natural and a red tube of dough, pinch the ends together and then twist them over and under each other, Once twisted, hold either end and twist again to tighten the twist.Place this on to your parchment lined baking tray and form in to a hook, flattening the dough slightly on the bottom by pressing down on it.
• Do this to all remaining dough making candy canes of any size.
• Bake these for 10-12 minutes and then let them cool completely before removing from the tray.
• Remove and enjoy! Makes about 8-12 medium sized candy cane cookies.