We somehow always end up with several candy canes after Christmas. I’m not complaining, I love peppermint.
As the darn virus dragged on, I found myself staring at them in the pantry wondering what I could do with them. I’ve been playing with different cookie recipes using the basic chocolate chip cookie recipe as a base. Hmm, I wonder how a candy cane would taste in a cookie. I wanted to keep the red and white look and thought about using just red M&M’s or white chocolate chips. White chips won out; I crushed the candy canes I had and jumped in with both feet.
I have to say, these came out better than I thought. I just didn’t have enough candy canes to work with, only 1/2 cup. There was enough to know you were eating peppermint but not enough for me. Time for a trip to the store for more candy canes.
I thought about dipping the top of a dough ball into crushed candy canes for a pretty red and white top. Good in theory, not in execution. Tasty for sure, but oh so ugly. Back to the drawing board again.
I had another box of 12 candy canes and tried one more time. For reference, 12 canes crushes out to be 3/4 cup. Alrighty, let’s give that a try. I saw on other recipes with candy canes that people placed scooped dough in the refrigerator before baking. I thought to myself, “it certainly can’t hurt.” Happily, it worked! Still not as pretty as I imagined in my head but delicious nonetheless. I fixed that by pressing a few white chips into the cookies as soon as I took them out of the oven.
Grab your rolling pin and let’s get started!
Put candy canes in a sturdy ZipLoc style back and break them up with the rolling pin. You can bang them into little pieces for roll them, whichever works for you. Set aside.
Melt the butter then let it cool a bit. If the butter is too warm, the batter will be affected. While the butter is melting and cooling, sift the dry ingredients in a small bowl. Sifting the dry ingredients gives the right amount of fluff for perfectly structured cookies.
When the butter is slightly cooled, cream it with the sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour and mix until just combined.
Stir in the white chocolate chips and crushed candy canes by hand. I like my cookies on the small side, purely so I can eat six or eight and not feel bad, so I use a 1-tablespoon size scoop.
Place all of the scooped dough onto a cookie sheet and refrigerate for an hour.
Bake in a 325 degree oven for 9-10 minutes. If using a big, beefy scoop then bake for 11-14 minutes. Rotate the cookie sheets at halfway point. Do not over bake. Press a few white chips into the cookie as they sit on cookie sheet for one minute or so. Then, slide them off to fully cool.
Candy Cane Cookies
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup white chocolate chips, plus extra for pressing into cookies
- 3/4 cup crushed candy canes
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Melt butter.
- While butter is cooling, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the white chocolate chips by hand. After they are incorporated, stir in 3/4 cup smashed candy canes. If your butter was still hot when you added it your dough may be really wet at this point. Let it rest at room temperature for a couple of minutes if this is the case and then it will be cool enough to scoop into cookies.
- Scoop dough, place on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for one hour. Bake 9-10 minutes (my oven cooks slow, your time may be shorter), reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy. Do not over bake.
- Cool cookies on sheets for a minute or so then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Store in a sealed container.