Looking for more clever ways to incorporate your favorite festive peppermint treat into your life? These Candy Cane Shortbread Cookies have a buttery, melt-in-your-mouth base to showcase crunchy bits of peppermint bliss.
This recipe takes my go-to shortbread recipe (the same one I use for my Margarita Cookies!) and gives it a Christmas-time spin by incorporating the treat that is synonymous with Holiday cheer: the candy cane!
Shortbread cookies are denser because of their high fat content. You can expect a thicker, crumblier cookie from a shortbread recipe as opposed to a crispy sugar cookie.
Plus, they’re simple to make and only require 7 ingredients. As a mom-on-the-go who loves to bake but doesn’t have an endless amount of time in the kitchen, if a recipe is overcomplicated, I’m skipping it. I promise you can nail these, even if you’re a beginner baker.
Candy Cane Shortbread Cookies Ingredient Highlights
Using unsalted butter allows you to control how much salt you add to your cookies. It’s important that your butter is softened (not too solid and not melted) to get the perfect cookie texture.
If you take the butter out of the fridge 15-20 minutes before you get started, that should be plenty of time for it to soften. If you forget to take it out—don’t worry! I’ve got hacks for you in this article about how to soften butter quickly.
Remember, we are striving for softened, not melted. You’ll know your butter is softened when your finger leaves an imprint when you poke it.
Powdered sugar, or confectioners’ sugar, is aerated. It’s already so light and fluffy and is the perfect hack to achieve a melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookie every time.
While you can substitute granulated sugar 1:1 for the cookies in this recipe, I highly recommend using powdered for a flawless consistency.
You’ll use just the yolk of an egg in this cookie recipe, but don’t waste the egg white! Check out these Candied Walnuts if you are looking for a fun recipe that uses just egg whites. I’ll get into my preferred method for separating yolks and eggs below.
How I Make Candy Cane Shortbread Cookies
I Always Set Myself Up for Christmas Cookie Baking Success!
First things first! Start your baking process by pre-heating the oven to 350°F and lining your cookie sheet. Personally, I also like to measure all of my ingredients ahead of time, so my baking process is easy and seamless.
I find that a hand mixer is the best tool to cream the sugar and butter together for the base of your cookies. It’s also the easiest way to combine the rest of the ingredients and whip up your glaze.
I use this Cuisinart Hand Mixer for almost all of my baking and love it!
Cream Butter and Sugar Together First
Use your hand mixer to combine your sugar and softened butter together first to form a base for your cookie dough.
This makes for a lighter, more buttery, melt-in-your-mouth cookie dough.
Use Just the Yolk
Utilizing just the yolk of an egg gives us that super buttery texture. Using both the white and the yolk will give your candy cane shortbread cookies a crumblier texture (I promised you melt-in-your-mouth, didn’t I?).
Separating the egg white from the yolk is easily achieved by cracking your eggshell in half over a bowl and transferring the egg yolk back and forth between either half of the shell, allowing the egg white to fall into the bowl.
You are now left with the egg whites in the bowl and the egg yolks in the shell. And voila! Just like that, your eggs are separated.
Crush Those Candy Canes
This is for mixing right into your dough! You’ll crush 2-3 candy canes or 5-6 mini candy canes to yield 4 tablespoons of crushed candy cane.
I used a mortar and pestle, but you can also opt to put your candy cane in a storage bag and use a rolling pin to crush them.
I like to fold 2 tablespoons of the crushed candy cane into my dough and then leave the rest out to add on top.
Resting Your Dough
Once you make your dough, use a tablespoon to scoop out roughly even amounts of dough to form your cookies.
Use clean hands to roll the cookie dough into balls and place them on a lined baking sheet. You can use parchment paper, or for a less wasteful option, check out these reusable baking mats!
Then, set the shaped dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours. If you’re in a rush, I find that resting in the freezer for 30 minutes works in a pinch. Resting will just stop your cookies from spreading too much.
Additionally, candy canes will start to melt when they reach 300°F. The candy cane bits that are inside the dough will be protected by the cookie dough, but the bits of candy cane on top will likely melt.
After baking, just use a spoon to push any melted candy canes back into the cookies.
Allow your cookies to cool and the melted candy cane bits to re-solidify before digging into these cookies.
Storing Your Candy Cane Shortbread Cookies
If you store these delicious cookies in an airtight container, they will last about a week at room temperature, 10 days in the refrigerator, and up to 3 months in the freezer.
If you freeze them, allow them to thaw naturally before enjoying them.
You can also opt to freeze the dough for up to one month and bake them as you want to enjoy them. In this case, roll the dough into balls and store them in an airtight container in the freezer.
Candy Cane Shortbread Cookies
SAVE RECIPE TO COLLECTION PIN PRINT RATEEquipment
- Cookie Scoop (optional)
- Reusable Baking Mat (optional)
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons candy cane, finely crushed (4 tbsp usually is 4 to 6 candy canes)
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened (½ cup usually = 1 stick)
- ½ cup powdered (confectioner's) sugar, tightly packed
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Crush 4 to 6 candy canes to yield 4 tablespoons of crushed candy cane bits and set aside.4 tablespoons candy cane, finely crushed
- In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on medium speed to combine softened butter and powdered sugar.½ cup unsalted butter, softened, ½ cup powdered (confectioner's) sugar, tightly packed
- Add the flour and salt and combine with your hand mixer on medium speed.1 cup all-purpose flour, ¼ teaspoon salt
- Add the egg yolk and vanilla extract and combine with your hand mixer on low (see notes below for how to separate an egg).1 large egg yolk, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- Fold in 2 tablespoons of crushed candy cane, reserving the other two tablespoons for on top.
- Use a large cookie scoop or wet hands to form your dough into 8 round cookies, dunking them in the remaining crushed candy cane to coat the top.
- Place your cookie dough balls on a lined baking sheet or reusable mat, leaving at least an inch of space in between each cookie.
- Place the cookie sheet with your cookie dough in the refrigerator to set for 2 hours and preheat your oven 325°F.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes and allow to cool before enjoying. Some of the candy cane bits will melt. If you have some melted candy cane oozing off the sides of the cookies, use a spoon to press them back into the cookies while they're still hot.
Pro Tips
- * Separate your yolk from your egg by cracking your eggshell in half over a bowl and transferring the egg yolk back and forth between either half of the shell, allowing the egg white to fall into the bowl.
11 thoughts on “Easy Candy Cane Shortbread Cookies”
Loved the recipe, very easy to follow (this was my first time!) I just reduced the amount of sugar from 1/2 cup to 1/3, more to my taste. The only issue I had was that the recipe calls for 1 large egg yolk, but I could not find large so made the recipe with 2 and my friends said they liked them 🙂
So glad you enjoyed and were able to tailor them to your taste! Have a wonderful Holiday season!
Can you use a stand mixer if you don’t have a hand mixer?
Absolutely! Once you add the eggs, just watch closely so you don’t overmix. Enjoy!
Hi there!
I’m so sorry the cookies did not turn out how you expected. The typo was actually in the post, not the recipe card (now fixed-thank you!). You are indeed meant to freeze the cookies before baking them. The source of the thinness is most likely from overmixing. Did you happen to use a stand mixer instead of a hand mixer? I’d be more than happy to troubleshoot with you!
I hit “jump to the recipe” and that’s what I followed. I used a hand mixer according to the instructions. So I was supposed to freeze? I see the discrepancy has been fixed. I might try again as I still have left over candy canes.
Yes, it’s been fixed. Thank you so much for pointing that out! I hope you do try again!! One of the first times I tested these my butter was a little more melted than softened, and I had some extra thinning, but otherwise with a hand mixer and freezing for 30 minutes, I’ve had great success! You can always use a round cookie cutter or even a large glass to “shuffle” the cookies once they are out of the oven to get them perfectly circular, too! Let me know if you try again 🙂
My family and I made these for our annual cookie making day. I cannot say enough good things about them!! They were so easy to make and were incredibly delicious! I’m not always a huge fan of peppermint, but the candy canes inside and on top were perfect. The cookie itself is buttery and amazing, and they came out perfectly gooey inside with crisp edges – exactly how I like my cookies. One of the best cookies we’ve made – will definitely be making again!
First — I love that your family has an annual cookie making day, that’s so cute! I’m honored you chose my recipe for such an occasion and I’m so happy it stepped up to the plate!!
I cannot wait to make these! they are perfect for the holiday! going to use flax egg and vegan butter
That should work perfectly! Let me know how they turn out!