Made with organic, non-gmo ingredients and no artificial colors or flavors, I used organic strawberry and beet juice powder, I feel a little less guilty eating these candy cane cookies over the traditional recipe.

Candy cane cookies are the most requested cookies of the season for me.  Probably because nobody else wants to do the work of making all those little balls of dough and rolling them out to make the candy canes. lol  I try not to use or eat artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, so for several years I’ve made my own red coloring by boiling beets and using the concentrated color, but I never could add enough juice to color it beyond a light pink because it would make the dough too wet.  Beet juice works fine in these cookies because there is no acid, baking soda or baking powder, that would cause it to turn brown while baking.

This year I decided to experiment with organic fruit juice powder.  I tried Hibiscus, Pomegranate, Strawberry, Raspberry, and Beet powders in varying amounts since I couldn’t find any previous candy cane cookie recipes using powders for color.

The hibiscus powder ended up a dark purple…pretty, but not what I was going for.  Pomegranate powder ended up kind of a light lavender color.  Raspberry and strawberry alone were pinkish, but the strawberry had more of a red tint that I was looking for.  Beet was a deeper red, but I used too much powder in the first batch and it flavored the cookies a little.  I ended up using a combination of strawberry and beet powder.

I also added a couple new tools to my arsenal this year which made the process a little simpler.  I was very happy with the 1.5 tsp scoop and a little porcelain mortar and pestle for crushing the candy cane with.  I was able to add sugar right into the mortar with the candy cane and sprinkle it on the cookies from there, and the scoop made the perfect size balls for rolling.

Candy Cane Cookies

Makes 3-4 dozen

1 C. butter, softened
1 C. sifted powdered sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. strawberry powder
1 tsp. beet powder
1 crushed peppermint candy cane
1/2 C. granulated sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Crush the candy cane and combine with the granulated sugar, set aside to sprinkle on the cookies when they come out of the oven.

Mix butter, powdered sugar, eggs, almond and vanilla flavoring in mixing bowl.  Combine flour and salt in another bowl, then mix into the butter mixture.

Divide dough in half.  Place one half of the dough back into the mixing bowl and add the strawberry and beet powder (alternatively, you can add 1/2 tsp. red food color if you prefer) and mix until color is evenly combined in dough.

Scoop out 1 to 1.5 tsp. of each color of dough, roll each into a 4-inch strip, place them side by side and twist to form candy cane, then place on ungreased cookie sheet and form the shape.  I actually place the two strips next to each other and twist and roll together to make the twisted rope, but you can do it however you prefer.  Repeat until you have 12 cookies on the baking sheet.  If dough is too soft, place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes, if dough is too sticky use a tiny amount of flour when rolling out the dough.  Don’t use too much flour or the ropes won’t stick together.

Bake for 7-8 minutes, until they start to turn a golden brown on the bottom; remove from oven and quickly sprinkle with sugar mixture, then transfer to a cooling rack.  You don’t want to over bake these cookies, so baking time will depend on your oven, keep an eye on the first batch or two.  They will continue to cook on the baking sheet while you’re sprinkling them with the sugar mixture.  You can also just use sugar and omit the candy cane if you prefer.  Stores in an airtight container for a couple weeks…if they last that long.