Candy Cane Cookies

These tasty and decorative treats really add to holiday charm.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 box sugar cookie mix
• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup softened cream cheese
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus additional for surface
• Red food coloring (or beet powder if you don’t like food coloring)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
• Crushed candy cane bits (optional)

Here’s how you do it:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees..
2. In a bowl, combine sugar cookie mix, melted butter, egg, cream cheese, and flour; mix together to form dough. 
3. Separate dough into 2 equal portions and place in 2 different bowls. 
4. Add red food coloring (or beet powder) gradually to 1 bowl of dough, kneading together until desired shade of red is created. 
5. To the second bowl of uncolored dough, add peppermint extract and knead together. 
6. On a floured work surface, shape each dough into balls and then roll each ball into 1/4-inch-wide ropes, each about 6 inches long. 
7. For each cookie, carefully twist some of the red and white ropes of dough together and shape into a candy cane.
8. Spread candy canes out on cookie sheets and bake on the top shelf of the oven for about 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool before serving.

Optional: If you want to add candy cane bits on the top of your cookies, (just crush up some candy canes in a ziplock!) gently dip the topsides of the cookies into the crushed candy canes (a small sheet pan works great for this) right before putting them in the oven. To make them look extra festive and pretty, add some of the leftover crushed candy cane bits to your cookies right after you take them out of the oven.