Candy Cane Cookies

4.53 from 74 votes

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This sweet and chewy Christmas Candy Cane Cookie recipe is adapted from my award winning Lemon Crinkle Cookies recipe. It’s the ever popular holiday version that is chewy, minty and just divine! My favorite way to enjoy a candy cane!

candy cane cookies on a plate

Why You’ll Love Candy Cane Cookies

These candy cane sugar cookies have simple, everyday ingredients (most that you already have in your pantry!) to make soft, chewy and delicious peppermint cookies. Perfect for the Christmas season because this recipe uses peppermint candy canes! YUM! They add a touch of holiday cheer to cookie platters and are a fun and decorative addition to your holiday parties.

stacked cookies on a plate

Candy Cane Cookies Tips and Tricks

I love a soft, chewy and pepperminty cookie, especially at Christmas. So, if you have made a few of my Christmas cookie recipes before, odds are you will like this recipe as written. Here are some tips and tricks to get you cookies that look just like mine!

Baking Time. I use lighter colored baking sheets, so the bake time is based on that. If using a nonstick darker baking sheet, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Peppermint. The addition of peppermint extract takes these to the next level of festive! Try adding a few drops of peppermint extract to the dough. Start with 1/2 teaspoon and work up from there.

Spreading. If your cookies are spreading too much, it’s because there isn’t enough flour. The butter to flour ratio is off…happens a lot with cookies because everyone measures their flour a little differently. Try adding in 1 tablespoon of flour and baking one cookie to see if you get that signature cookie dough texture.

candy cane cookies on a tablescape

Ingredients Needed for Candy Cane Cookies

Here is everything you need to make these cookies! Most are pantry staples that you probably already have!

How to Make Candy Cane Cookies

This is a simple cookie dough with crushed peppermint candies mixed in. For full recipe details, including ingredient measurements and baking time see the printable recipe card down below. Here is step by step what you can expect when making this recipe:

Prep

Preheat your oven to 350° F. Spray light colored cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray, line with parchment paper or use silicone baking mat and set aside.

baking sheet

Crush Candy Canes

Throw the candy canes into a plastic zip top bag and bang them up with a rolling pin or mallet. I didn’t even unwrap the candy canes. Once they’re crushed, you can pick out the plastic wrappers. I had a few bigger chunks of candy cane, but for the most part, these were pretty small.

In a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy. This is a super important step for soft cookies. Whip in vanilla extract and egg. Scrape sides and mix again.

Measure out your baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir it into your flour. Excluding the powdered sugar, dump all your dry ingredients into the bowl and mix until it’s just incorporated. Scrape sides of the bowl and mix again briefly.

Add in Crushed Candy Canes

Add in the crushed candy canes. I don’t know about you but I could eat this whole bowl of dough. Come to momma.

Form Into Balls + Roll in Powdered Sugar

Pour powdered sugar into a separate bowl or large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on prepared baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begins to BARELY golden brown. This is the key to their chewiness. For best results, you want the outside of the cookie to look matte (not shiny) when you pull them out. Mine were done in 8 minutes on the nose. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Storing Candy Cane Cookies

Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for about a week. Obviously, the longer they sit, the less fresh they will be! Nothing a quick zap in the microwave can’t handle though.

To Freeze: Place baked and cooled cookies into a freezer safe, airtight container with parchment paper separating the layers. Cookies will stay fresh in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw on the counter.

FAQ About Candy Cane Cookies

Why aren’t my cookies spreading?

A lot of you have mentioned to me that these cookies don’t spread. This problem happens because there is too much flour in your cookie dough! 
Fluff up your flour, spoon it into your measuring cup and then level the top. That is the correct way to measure flour and how I measured it for this recipe. So be careful when measuring and you’ll have perfect Candy Cane Cookies.

Why did my cookies spread so much?

A common problem when making these cookies is that they flatten out way too much! Why?
Butter.
This recipe calls for softened butter, not melted butter. The best way to get softened butter is to plan ahead. A couple of hours before you make these cookies set 1/2 cup of butter on the counter. As it sits there is will soften.
But if you are in a pinch you can microwave butter to soften it instead. Microwave in 5-second intervals rotating your cube of butter each time. Please please please use caution when softening this way. It can easily go from solid to melted in seconds! And in turn, your cookies will spread way too much.

Why is my dough so sticky?

If you already used melted butter instead of softened butter, and your candy cane cookie dough is sticky don’t worry! You have two options to fix this.
Pop your dough in the fridge for 30 minutes to solidify the dough a bit.
OR
Add in small amounts of flour until your cookie dough comes together better. Definitely use my photo of the cookie dough above to base your cookie dough off of.

More of the Best Christmas Cookies to Bake!

I LOVED how these Christmas Candy Cane Cookies turned out and hope they make it to your mouth soon. These are great to add to Christmas cookie platters, cookie exchanges or to leave out on Christmas Eve for Santa! Whatever your holiday tradition is, I hope you make these this holiday season! The printable recipe card is below! Have a great day, friends! 🙂

If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate it if you would give it a star rating and leave your review in the comments! If you have a picture of your finished dish, post it on Instagram using the hashtag #laurenslatest and tagging me @laurens_latest.

candy cane cookies on a plate
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4.53 from 74 votes

Candy Cane Cookies

This sweet and chewy Christmas Candy Cane Cookie recipe is adapted from my award winning Lemon Crinkle Cookies recipe and are absolutely divine and so festive!
servings 24 cookies
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 11 minutes
Total Time 24 minutes

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease light colored baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray, line with parchment paper or use silicone baking mat and set aside.
    baking sheet
  • Place candy canes into a plastic food storage bag and crush using a rolling pin. Set aside.
    candy canes and a rolling pin
  • In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whip in vanilla and egg. Scrape sides and mix again. Stir all dry ingredients together in a small bowl and then in pour into the mixer and slowly mix until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of the bowl and mix again briefly. Stir in crushed candy canes.
    crushed candy canes added to cookie dough
  • Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on the baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
    woman's hand holding a cookie dough ball rolled in powdered sugar
  • Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begins to barely brown and cookies look matte (not melty or shiny). Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
    cookies on a wire rack

Video

Notes

If using a nonstick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes.

Nutrition

Calories: 113kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 66mg | Potassium: 15mg | Sugar: 12g | Vitamin A: 130IU | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 0.4mg
Course: Cookies, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Candy Cane, candy cane cookie recipe, Candy Cane Cookies
christmas cookie recipes

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123 Responses
  1. Lauren's Latest » Red Hots Crinkle Cookies

    […] are the Lemon Crinkles. Those won a little contest and put me on the map. Then I did some Christmas Candy Cane Crinkles. Then more recently I made these Orange Cranberry Crinkles last year.  And now, some Red Hots […]

  2. Alexis AKA MOM

    5 stars
    Thank you so much for the recipe. It was a huge hit, I can’t wait to try the lemon version. I’m post a link to you 🙂

  3. Candy Cane Cookies | Delectable Reads

    […] First thing’s first, what to do with the extra candy canes. I found these little gems on Lauren’s Latest and made them for my annual Cookie and Beer gathering. They were a huge hit. They’re the perfect […]

    1. Julia Bee

      Definitely, you can mix by hand. I’ve never had a mixer but once borrowed from a friend for a year and I know that I can even mix things for 3-5 minutes. Younger people to take turns mixing is great when it’s longer! 🙂 Cookies are the easiest thing to mix by hand.

  4. Peppermint Lofthouse Sugar Cookies {and how to solve a dinner dilemma} - Rachel Cooks

    […] season have been peppermint this or that. Peppermint shortbread, peppermint pattie cookies, peppermint crinkles…umm do I have a problem? I also made these cream cheese shortbread cookies with chopped up […]

  5. Monica Epstein

    5 stars
    Yum, Lauren. These cookies are delicious. And I never thought of using the rolling pin to pound the candy canes. Duh. I used to roll the pin over the ziploc bag and it took forever, not to mention the shards of candy would cut the bag and start leaking out. Thanks for a great recipe.

  6. Katerina Klimes

    5 stars
    I popped my candy Canes in the food processor. The cookies were lovely, soft, chewy. We also did a thumb print in the middle and sprinkled the candy cane dust in the middle…..so cute and nice

  7. Heather

    5 stars
    Wow these cookies are awesome! My leftover candy canes were green and red so they came out super festive! Not everyone in my family likes peppermint though so I also did a batch with crushed up Werthers in them….Double WOW! I have to freeze them so I don’t gain ten pounds before Christmas time 🙂 thanks for the recipe! Will add this to the annual mix!

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  9. Brie

    5 stars
    Delicious! I made these today and they were really easy to make and tasted great. I gave some to my mom and she said that they were the best cookie she had ever eaten.

  10. Dara

    5 stars
    Hi Lauren, I made these cookies for the first time today, and they are divine. So easy to make, beautiful to look at, and absolutely delicious. I quadrupled the recipe to bring to a cookie swap tonight. Thank you!

  11. Erin P.

    5 stars
    Okay…these were great! BUT, I have to share this. I was low on butter. So…I used shortening. I know people think I am a crappy baker for this. However, in my defense…I always have shortening and with all the great mint flavor dominating this cookie it was still delicious.

  12. Heather Walker

    5 stars
    I make a cookie very similar to this, but along with the peppermint I add WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIPS! It is really, really good!

  13. Christmas Recipes from Around the Web « Diary of a Jewell

    […] Candy Cane Crinkles & Mini Mint Truffle Brownies from Lauren’s Latest […]

  14. Candy Cane Crinkles | Home Is Where The Cookies Are

    […] discovered them at Lauren’s Latest last week. I was struggling with making a decision over what kind of cookie to make for our cookie […]

  15. Jolene (www.everydayfoodie.ca)

    Those look amazing!!!!!! I love that the recipe is really easy and includes things that I always have on hand! Mmmmmm! I am going to make this one!

  16. Michelle

    Love this idea and the quick cooking time so much I linked to you on my blog for my holiday madness round up! Would love it if you checked it out!

    http://www.fromthefirstbite.com/2011/12/last-minute-holiday-madness.html

    xo

  17. Jill Lombardo

    Wow, will have to make these this weekend. But now that you know she reads your blog, you can definitely work on getting the roll recipe…and ….share it with us=) Thanks for a great story and wonderful recipe!

  18. CouponClippingCook

    o.m.g. these look soooo good. seriously, love how they look chewy…and the color of the cookie looks so delish. Also, your little one is just adorable. So love your pics too. great post.

  19. Moontaj

    I am TOTALLY making these!

    Do have 1 question what is the purpose of Baking Soda in the cookies?

    Totally n000b question but I’ve wondered cause I’ve made cookies without the baking soda before and they turned out fine.

  20. Amber, RD

    Oh my! These sound wonderful. Unfortunately, my baking list is set for the rest of the Christmas season, but these will be on my list for next year. How brilliant is a candy cane cookies?
    P.S. What a beautiful little girl!!

  21. Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga

    these look so great!! I love that someone’s mom is reading your blog and adapting your recipes…before you even 🙂 That’s pretty cool…I dont think my mom reads my blog and would probably laugh at it. haha!

    I saw your donuts on the front page of FG and on Tasty Kitchen..congrats. Now I want these cookies and donuts!

  22. Natalie

    That is hilarious. You were quite the little heartbreaker it seems! I love her idea of swapping lemon for candy canes! Maybe you can get that roll recipe afterall…

  23. Candy Cane Crinkles | Forum Indonesia

    […] be advised, fraternal greetings. Please read the complete article with the title above in the link: https://laurenslatest.com/candy-cane-crinkles/ This entry was posted in Recipe. Bookmark the permalink. ← A Quick Succession Of Busy […]

  24. Rachel @ Not Rachael Ray

    Ha, your story cracked me up! Your daughter is beautiful, and these cookies look AMAZING! Pinning–might have to squeeze these in this year.

  25. Julie @ Table for Two

    ok, i’m bookmarking this because i’m SO making this on sunday when i make my holiday cookies for work — this is awesome!! thank you 🙂 🙂 your daughter is the cutest thing ever! i really hope i have a daughter so i can cook with her 🙂

    1. Miranda Headrick

      5 stars
      With Christmas right around the corner when I saw these, I knew I needed to put them on the list this year! We make so many cookies at Christmas….kind of a tradition. The tradition being gaining an obligatory 5 lbs 😉 We are expecting number 4 (a little boy as well) on Jan. 1st, so the kids and I will be baking away early this year and freezing so we can enjoy baby time when he arrives….and be able to pull out a quick treat when we want! Thank you for all your amazing recipes!

  26. Sara

    Oh! How perfect. I have a cookie exchange TONIGHT and I was still debating over what to make. This will be it. Yay!! Thanks for solving my DEEE-lema!

    1. Sara

      5 stars
      Ok – so I made these and I’m ready for my cookie swap tonight, I just have to say,
      HOLY-NEW-FAVORITE-COOKIE-BATMAN!!! These are DEE-lish!!! They will be a part of every Christmas from here on out! Thanks to you and your x-boyfriend’s mom 😉 !

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