Christmas Special: Adorable Candy Cane Cookies!

HELLO! HELLOOOO!!!

GOD, I MISSED MY BLOG SOOOOOO MUCH!

To all my wonderful old blogger friends and dear readers, a big *virtual hug*. To all the new friends who were kind enough to follow and like my blog while I was away on a sabbatical- A big Thankyou and a waving, energetic Hi!!

Update- So, I could meet the deadline of my personal project for which I had taken the time off nicely, and now I will just keep polishing it and re-polishing it at leisure. The important thing was to create an outline without any distractions and that was the main aim of getting away from my blog so that I could concentrate fully on it. That was thankfully achieved and I am moderately happy with myself right now. I hope this project takes a stronger shape quick enough so that I can share it here with you all too then. I dare not right now..but I will soon!

Right, so back to the business at hand. Hey, FYI…………. It’s almost Christmas folks!! ❤

I had aimed that I should get back here in time for Christmas so that I could try my hand at some wonderful Christmas recipes at this awesome time of the year. I mean let’s face it, if I wasn’t blogging, I wouldn’t go to all the trouble of cooking an elaborate Christmas meal (and the little knick-knacks before that) for just me and hubs. So, my blog gives me a reason to try new things on every special day of the year, and I am ecstatic plus fully rejuvenated to get into the spirit of Christmas in my cutesy little kitchen.

I soaked my dried-fruits in Rum yesterday for my Christmas cake and made my first batch of Christmas cookies yesterday evening as well. I had seen these ‘Candy-cane’ cookies a few months back on Instagram and had immediately put them on my ‘to-bake list’ for Christmas. I thought that the idea was just so sweet and the cookies looked simply adorable!

These cookies are super-easy and so right to make at this time of the year. They taste yummy and are sure to be a big hit with young and old people alike.

Give these a go my friend, and enjoy the festive season to the fullest! Ho! Ho! Ho! xx

Ingredients:

– 3 cups All Purpose flour

– 3/4^th cup Butter at room temperature

– 2 Eggs

– 1 cup Sugar

– 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

– A few drops of Vanilla Extract

– A few drops of Strawberry Extract

– 2-3 drops of Pink Food Color

Method:

– Firstly, prepare your cookie dough. In a bowl, beat your sugar and butter well until fluffy and creamy.

– Next, add the eggs, vanilla extract and strawberry extract. Beat for another minute.

– Now, to this mix, add your flour and baking powder. With a spatula, mix gently until the mixture is fully uniform with no lumps. I used my hands to form the dough well, as we do in Indian breads but you can do the same in a food-processor or an electric cake mixer.

– Divide your dough in two parts. To one part, add your pink color. Mix well until the dough portion looks uniformly and beautifully Pink.

– Wrap both the portions of the dough individually in cling film and refrigerate for one hour.

– Pre-heat your oven at 190 degrees C. Also, line your baking tray with greased parchment paper.

– Take both portions of the cookie dough out of the fridge and allow it to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.

– Take little balls of dough from each portion and with your hands, form them into individual ropes.

– Place the differently colored ropes of dough side-by side so that they are sticking to each other and lightly pinch both the ends together.

– Picking up both the ends, twist them carefully so that they twirl. Lastly, place them on the baking tray and curve the tops so they look like candy canes. Prepare all your candy canes this way.

– Bake for 10-15 minutes, until they feel firm to a light touch, and the edges begin looking slightly browned.

– Allow them to cool completely as they will continue to firm up with cold air. Enjoy your lovely candy cane cookies with a hot cup of tea!

*Tips:

– When your cookies bake, the dough will expand in width. My cookies came a bit broader than I had envisioned them to be. Thus, take smaller portions of dough and make smaller cookies, to get the perfect size.

– Substitute the pink color with any other color of your choice. You can also swap the Strawberry flavoring with a different one that you like, for eg. Peppermint or Lemon flavoring!