This Christmas tradition comes from one of our staffer’s kitchen; cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve
Cookie
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg
Filling
1 cup plus 2 tbsp icing sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 tsp peppermint extract
2 drops red food colouring (or more if you like)
Decoration
1/2 cup crushed red and white striped candy canes (available at Bulk Barn)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Make Cookie Dough: Whisk flour, cocoa, and salt in medium bowl to blend. Set aside. Using electric mixer,
beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended. Beat in egg. Add your sifted, dry
ingredients. Beat until blended. Refrigerate dough 1 hour.
Make Icing: Using electric mixer, beat powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl until
well blended. Add peppermint extract and your drops food colouring. Beat until
pink and well blended, adding more food colouring by single drops if darker
pink colour is desired. Set aside.
Roll Out Dough: Flour your surface and get ready to roll out your dough. The dough may seem a bit dry compared to other cookie dough, but don’t worry. It all comes together when you roll it out. Using a floured rolling pin, press dough until you reach about ¼” thickness. Using a circle-shaped cookie cutter press out your shapes, re-rolling the remaining scraps of dough and pressing them into circles until all the dough is used.
Lay the cut-outs on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper and bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for about 10 minutes.
Make Your Cookie Sandwiches
Once they’re baked and completely cooled, spread a generous portion of the peppermint icing between two cookies, pressing gently to ensure some icing extends beyond the cookie’s edges so when you roll the sandwich in your crushed candy canes, the decoration sticks. You can buy crushed candy canes at any Bulk Barn or pulse whole candy canes in a food processor.
Cookie sandwiches can be made ahead of time. Just store in single layer in airtight container at room temperature
up to 3 days or freeze up to 2 weeks.