Candy Cane Cookies

The new cookies I want to bake this year for our holiday gift tins are these (click here). I spotted them at The English Kitchen, an absolutely charming blog I am completely smitten with! I confess that I very seldom just take a recipe and make it, no matter how good the source. I feel compelled to contrast and compare different cooks' versions, so before I made the Swedish Meatballs from Simply Recipes, I started to look through a few of my cookbooks. I didn't get any farther than a cookbook titled Eet Smakelijk. "In his native land, A Dutch host utters these words before each meal, Eet Smakelijk, meaning to eat well and with taste." It is a collection of recipes by members and friends of the Junior Welfare League of Holland, Michigan published in 1976, and a recent thrift store find of mine. It has two recipes for Swedish Meatballs -and a recipe for candy cane cookies. The following recipe is my combination of the one in this Dutch-American cookbook, The English Kitchen's recipe, plus another in Land O Lakes holiday booklet #74. Aside from being incredibly cute, I just know they're also going to taste really good!

Candy Cane Cookies
Cream:
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. veg. shortening (or all butter)
1 c. powdered sugar
1 egg
1 t. almond or peppermint extract
1 t. vanilla

Add:
2 1/2 c. flour
1/2 t. salt

Divide the dough in half, blending 1/2 t. red food coloring into one of the halves. Refrigerate dough for an hour, if it seems to soft to work with. Roll 1 t. each of the white and red colored doughs into 4 inch long ropes. Place side by side, press lightly together at one end, twist ropes, and then roll so they hold together. Place on cookie sheet, curving one end to form into the shape of a candy cane. Bake 350-375 degrees for 9-12 minutes, or until set. Sprinkle with sugar immediately after removing from the oven. Let set 1 minute before removing to a wire rack and cooling completely.

Variation: Do not divide the dough and omit the red food coloring. Roll 1 T. dough into a 9 inch rope tapering from center to end, fold rope in half and twist, pinching the end into a point, and forming an icicle cookie. Bake and sprinkle with sugar, as with candy cane cookies.