Flaherty Wines

Santa was very generous with the candy canes this year, so we had plenty to savour and plenty to stash. My latest peppermint experiment was sugar cookies, which came out wonderfully crispy and flavorful. Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, I used my heart cookie cutters. The heart-shaped cookies were very cute with the pink candy bits.

Peppermint sugar cookies

1  3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
125 g (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/3 cup crushed candy canes (about 65 grams, from 4 medium candy canes)
Additional sugar for sprinkling

Stir the flour and baking powder with a whisk to blend; set aside. Beat the butter, then add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well. Add the vanilla and peppermint extracts, then stir in the flour mixture. Finally, mix in the crushed candy canes until just blended. Chill the dough for an hour (using a food container, so the dough doesn’t dry out). (If you’re in a hurry, as I always am, then divide the dough in two and flatten the balls into disks, so they chill faster—in, say, 30 minutes.)

Preheat the oven to 325F (160C). Working with half the dough at a time (and leaving the other half in the refrigerator), roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thick (1/2 cm). Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool briefly on the sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about three dozen.