This shop and my candy cane cookies recipe have been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #HolidayWithGlade #CollectiveBias
There are a lot of times I’ve missed my Gram in the last year and a half since she passed, but this time of year it’s especially so. Gram was all about Christmas and everything it entailed from making our own fresh wreaths in her barn to baking up fat stacks of cookies to deliver to friends and family to decorating her house from top to bottom.
One of the cookies that she made every year were her Candy Cane Cookies. They were probably my favorite holiday treat that she baked and she would bring them to our house by the dozen. I’m pretty sure there may have been times I ate them by the dozen, too.
Candy Cane Cookies
My parents were here visiting for a few days to celebrate late Thanksgiving, my Mom’s birthday, and early Christmas. I wanted to bring a bit of Christmases past to our celebration so I decided to try and recreate Gram’s Candy Cane Cookies recipe for us all.
- ½ cup shortening
- ½ cup margarine
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 1 egg
- 1½ tsp almond extract
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp salt
- 2½ cups sifted flour
- red food coloring
- ½ cup crushed candy canes
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- In a large bowl beat together margarine, shortening and confectioners sugar.
- Add in egg, almond extract, vanilla extract and salt.
- Slowly add in flour. Do not over mix.
- Divide dough in half.
- Set aside one half of dough; cover and place in refrigerator.
- Add red food coloring to second half of the dough and mix gently until the desired shade is reached (do not over mix).
- Cover tinted dough and place in refrigerator. Chill both halves of dough overnight.
- Once dough is chilled, using a teaspoon of dough at a time, roll dough into thin pencil shapes 4-5" long.
- Place one red and one plain piece of dough next to each other in pairs.
- Twist ropes together and then shape into a candy cane shape.
- Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 9-11 minutes.
- While the cookies bake, crush candy canes and mix with granulated sugar.
- Sprinkle candy cane sugar mix on top of the cookies immediately upon removal from the oven.
- Store cookies in an air-tight container (if they last that long). They also freeze pretty well!
There are a lot of recipes that you can substitute this or that for; this is, in my experience, not one of those recipes. Use the shortening/margarine combination and definitely don’t skip the step where you chill the dough.
Once these were baking my kitchen started to smell amazing. It really reminded me of all those times baking together with my Gram in her own kitchen. It’s funny how a certain scent can trigger memories like that.
Every year, especially during the holidays, Glade® tries to create candle scents that you not only smell, but you feel. They tie in with a tradition or wish for the season. This year they’ve introduced several new Glade® Limited Edition Winter Collection scents, such as: BE AT PEACE™, CHERISH THE PRESENT™, SEND A LITTLE LOVE™, and SHARE THE SPIRIT™.
I picked up both SEND A LITTLE LOVE™, which smells like a yummy Vanilla Biscotti, and SHARE THE SPIRIT™, that smells like a pomegranate sparkler, at Kroger. Both the scent and the sentiment of the first jar candle remind me of Gram’s personality and those times together baking.
I’ll be burning one or the other this season every time I bake to bring me a little closer to Gram’s memory. And I’m going to tuck one of each into my Mom’s Christmas stocking to share the connection, too.
Which of the Glade® Limited Edition Winter Collection do you most connect with?
About Liza
Liza is a mom (5-year-old daughter, 20-year-old stepson, and 24-year-old stepdaughter) and wife living in Louisville. She loves spending time with her family, visiting the local zoo and parks, as well as planning travel adventures. Cooking and baking, DIY projects and crafts, and coffee - lots and lots of coffee - round out some of her other hobbies.
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