I wanted to make a special Christmas treat to bring to our staff Christmas party, and after much deliberation, I decided to take my sugar cookie recipe (which is the best sugar cookie I've ever had) and alter it a bit. The result is candy cane sugar cookies.
Here's the recipe. Much of it is the same as my Easy Sugar Cookies from November 2011, but so you don't have to go back and forth, I'll just post it all here. :)
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
5 peppermint (red and white) candy canes, crushed
Preheat oven to 375F.
In a small bowl, mix flour, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix sugar and butter until smooth. Beat in egg, vanilla and mint. Gradually blend in dry ingredients. Take rounded teaspoons of dough (I used more as I didn't want to make a huge amount of cookies) and place them on parchment paper on a baking sheet, flattening them. Sprinkle with the crushed candy canes, lightly pushing the bigger pieces of candy cane into the cookies.
Bake 8-10 minutes (12-14 minutes for bigger cookies like mine) or until golden brown. Let sit on cookie sheets for two minutes before removing to cool on a wire rack.
*I debated using 1 teaspoon of mint extract instead of just a 1/2 teaspoon, but decided against it as I didn't want the mint to be too overpowering, and since I was putting candy canes on them I thought it would be a bit much. However, if you try this and would prefer more mint, try them with 1 teaspoon and tell me how they turn out!
