Candy Cane Cookies

The internet doesn’t need another post about the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, so this isn’t that post.

It’s a post on something that surprised me Friday night.

You see, I had a busy day on Friday.  And I don’t tell you that to prove how important I am because I loathe people who tout their busyness, as if to imply their lives are any more important, or crowded, than any one of ours.  So I tell you that because that’s what it was.  A long day, with a full agenda.  A day with commitments from sunup to long past sundown.  December is this crazy month in which preparing for Christmas coincides with my husband and father-in-law’s birthdays.  About two weeks into December (read: now), I always find myself more stressed than I like to be.  And I find myself with a baking list about twelve miles long.  Sounds like a recipe for disaster.  But it isn’t, dear readers.

I trudged wearily into the kitchen on Friday evening, to be sure.  But after a cheesecake, a round of cookies, and a slew of these little guys (does anyone have an actual name for them?) I went up to bed relaxed and calm.  Baking is such a game-changer for me.  Spending multiple hours in the kitchen, making gifts for other people?  It’s my love language.  It’d been so long since my last round of cupcakes, I think I’d forgotten.

Elise posted these on Friday morning.  It was as if she knew my husband had come home the night before saying, “Never mind the two cakes you’re making this weekend, I was invited to a cookie exchange on Monday, can you make something I can bring?”  I imagine they’d be something Buddy the Elf would enjoy, as they involved crushed up candy canes, with buttercream frosting on top.

To make a couple dozen, you will need:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1.5 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• tsp vanilla
• tsp salt
• 4 cups flour
• tsp baking soda
• 4 tablespoons oil
• 12 candy canes, crushed
• buttercream frosting (and optional red food coloring)

First, crush your candy canes. This is more tricky than it sounds. The best method I have found is to double ziplock bag the unwrapped canes and then hit them with a hammer or the bottom of a mug.

Pre-heat the oven to 350*F.

Blend together the butter and sugar. Add in and continue to blend eggs, vanilla and salt. Once that’s well mixed, add in the flour and baking soda. Your dough will be fairly crumbly. Add in the oil and about 3/4 of the crushed candy canes.

Roll your dough into small balls and press onto a well greased cookie sheet. These cookies expand pretty well so I like to keep them on the smaller side. Melted candy cane is a real mess, so you may want to line your cookie sheets with parchment paper or be sure to pull the cookies off the sheet quickly after baking.

Bake cookies at 350* for 10-12 minutes.

Let cool completely then frost with buttercream frosting and sprinkle with the remaining bit of crushed candy cane