makes 10-15 cookies
ACTIVE TIME:
20 minutes
TOTAL TIME:
1 hour
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp candy cane crunch
- 3 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
Instructions
-
- Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer beat all the ingredients together except the cocoa powder and the candy cane crunch.
- Divide the dough in half and remove half of the dough.
- Add the cocoa powder to the remaining dough in the bowl. Work by kneading by hand. Add additional cocoa powder as needed until the dough has the perfect color.
- Add to the other half of the dough the candy cane crunch and mix with your hand.
- Pat both pieces of dough into 1-inch thick circles and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Unwrap both pieces of dough. Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of the doughs (about 2 tablespoons each). Roll each into a thick rope about 6 inches long. Pinch a brown and white rope together at the top, then gently twist them together. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Preheat the oven to 380oF and prepare the baking sheets with some parchment paper.
- Refrigerate the cookies on the baking sheets for 15 minutes before baking — this helps the cookies hold their shape during baking.
- Bake until the bottom edges and the tips of the cookies are just barely starting to turn golden-brown, 10 to 12 minutes.