Candy cane cookies

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

1. 1. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer beat all the ingredients together except the cocoa powder and the candy cane crunch. 
   2. Divide the dough in half and remove half of the dough.
   3. 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. 
   4. Add to the other half of the dough the candy cane crunch and mix with your hand. 
   5. Pat both pieces of dough into 1-inch thick circles and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
   6. 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.
   7. Preheat the oven to 380oF and prepare the baking sheets with some parchment paper. 
   8. Refrigerate the cookies on the baking sheets for 15 minutes before baking — this helps the cookies hold their shape during baking.
   9. Bake until the bottom edges and the tips of the cookies are just barely starting to turn golden-brown, 10 to 12 minutes.