White Chocolate Peppermint Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

White Chocolate Peppermint Candy Cane Sugar Cookies Christmas weekend baking…festive, easy to make, a touch sweet, and perfectly peppermint-y. Homemade sugar cookies, made with lots of melted white chocolate, a drizzle of peppermint oil, and a little bit of red food coloring to give these cookies that iconic candy cane look. They’re just as fun to make as they are to eat! Each bite is slightly crisp on the outside, but so soft and gentle inside. There’s really no better cookie for the Christmas season! Be sure to bake these delicious cookies this weekend as the perfect sweet treat to snack on or to give as a cute gift. So. GOOD.

→ This post is also available as a Web Story: Candy Cane Cookies

About The Recipe

With only 3 days left to Christmas, we are baking up a cookie storm in our kitchen. And while these were a bit of a last minute idea, they seemed to be the perfect addition to our holiday bakes! Because, why decide between giving Santa a plate of normal cookies or candy canes when you can give him a bit of both with these candy cane sugar cookies!

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My mom came up with these cookies yesterday afternoon and we just HAD to bake them asap. Thankfully, the first test bake actually worked! Perfectly soft, tender, and tasted like a delicious white sugar cookie with a dash of peppermint. It was everything we could hope for!

The hardest part, admittedly, was trying to figure out how to get the candy cane swirls. We attempted a simple twist braid at first and, while it worked okay, it was just two pieces of dough twisted together. It didn’t really have the look we were going for. So, we tried again with just rolling them together.

And while it worked better, it still wasn’t right. It had a bit more of a marble effect and less candy cane stripes.

In the last attempt, we combined the two methods! We braided the two doughs together and then rolled them…and it worked! Braiding them gave us the swirl effect, while rolling them smoothed the two together and created the perfect candy cane stripes.

Though, since we had to handle the dough this much to achieve the perfect candy cane look, we needed to lightly sprinkle the counter with powdered sugar. So, make sure you have powdered sugar on hand to be able to keep this cookie dough from sticking and ripping!

Other than that, these cookies are actually SUPER simple to make and very much a crowd-pleaser! Kids, adults, and even Santa Claus absolutely adore these delicious cookies.

Why You Will Love These Candy Cane Cookies

• They’re a simple sugar cookie, but with the addition of white chocolate and peppermint. YUM!
• Actually simple to make! You don’t even need a stand-mixer.
• They’re fun for the whole family.
• The cookies are soft and delicate, so when eating, they’re very enjoyable!
• They make a great (and fun!) addition to your Christmas cookie boxes.
• Perfectly sweet, not too peppermint-y, and every bite just melts in your mouth!

Equipment Needed

• Hand Mixer
• Mixing Bowls
• Parchment Paper
• Sheet Pans
• Cookie Spatula

Ingredients

(Full ingredient amounts and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post)

• White Chocolate
• Salted Butter
• Granulated Sugar
• Large Egg
• Vanilla Extract
• Whole Milk
• Peppermint Oil
• All-Purpose Flour
• Baking Powder
• Red Food Dye

How To Make Candy Cane Cookies

Step 1: Make the dough

Melt white chocolate in the microwave in 15 second bursts, stirring after each, until smooth. Set aside.

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Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

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Add egg and beat until well combined.

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Stir in milk, vanilla. and peppermint oil.

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Add the flour mixture and stir just until mixed.

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Stir in white chocolate.

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Step 2: Divide the dough

Divide dough in half. Add red color to half of the dough.

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Step 3: Assembly

Pinch off a 1/2 ounce portion of white dough and roll into a 3-inch long log. Repeat with red dough. Gently twist the two doughs together. Roll gently into a 7-inch striped log.

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Step 4: Bake

Gently lift with cookie spatula that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. Place on prepared pan and form into candy cane shape. Bake for 7-8 minutes, until just starting to color.

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What Kind of Chocolate Should I Use?

For this recipe, you need to use high quality white chocolate. No palm or kernel oils. This means you cannot use baking chips, as they are designed not to melt and, for this, you need the white chocolate to melt. The white chocolate needs to be pure cocoa butter. You can actually tell if it is or not, not just by the ingredients, but by the color! Fake white chocolate will be a snow/pure white, whereas real white chocolate will be a much yellow in color. Cool, right?

Variations

• If you want something a little different than an entirely peppermint cookie, try only adding the peppermint oil to half of the dough! This way, you will have a white chocolate stripe and a red peppermint stripe. This is actually our preferred way of making these, but it can be a bit more difficult, as the half of the dough with the peppermint oil may get overworked if not careful.
• The rolling can be a bit difficult so there are two different ways you can achieve a red and white effect on these cookies! The first is by marbling the two does together and using a cookie cutter to cut out candy cane shapes. Another way is by following the directions above, but instead of twisting the small logs together, roll them out to about 5 inches long, and braid them together.

How To Store

Once these cookies are completely cool, you can move them into a zip top bag and keep on the counter at room temperature for 3-5 days OR store them in a freezer safe bag and freeze for 1-2 months!

Expert Tips

• When the liquid ingredients are added to the butter mixture, it may curdle. This is okay! Just keep beating until it comes back together and is light and fluffy about. This takes about 1-2 minutes on high speed of an electric mixer.
• Do not beat the cookie dough once the flour has been added. You don’t want to over-work it.
• You can add peppermint oil to half of the dough, rather than to the entire batch. Though, you may need to reduce the amount of peppermint oil in half if you are doing this.
• The red will darken after baking.
• Do NOT refrigerate this cookie dough. It doesn’t help and makes the dough hard to work with. If you are making this cookie dough in advance, you can refrigerate overnight, but you will need to get it out and let it come to room temperature before working with it.
• Be sure to lightly sprinkle your work surface with sifted powdered sugar.
• These cookies are VERY fragile. Be careful when handling them.

When you make these White Chocolate Peppermint Candy Cane Sugar Cookies, leave a comment down below! We love hearing from you and answering any questions you might have! Also, be sure to tag us on social media and hashtag it #BakersTable.

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