How to Make Candy Cane Shaped Cookies

Prepare the Dough

Whisk together the flour, cocoa and salt in a medium bowl and set the bowl aside.

Place the butter and sugar in a separate mixing bowl.

Beat the mixture on medium speed, using either a handheld mixer or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, for 3 minutes.

Add the vanilla and beat for an additional 30 seconds.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients.

Turn the mixer down to low speed and beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until they are just incorporated.

Continue to gradually add the dry ingredients until they are completely mixed together.

Sprinkle some flour and dump the dough out onto a work surface and divide it in half.

Shape each dough half into a disc.

Wrap the discs in plastic wrap and chill the discs for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Bake the Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sprinkle some flour onto a clean and dry work surface.

Unwrap one disc of dough and place it onto the work surface.

Roll the dough out using a rolling pin to a thickness of about 1/4” (6 mm).

Cut the dough into cookies with a candy-cane-shaped cookie cutter.

Place the candy canes on the baking sheet, leaving about 1” (2 1/2 cm) between each cookie.

Re-roll any leftover dough and continue cutting out cookies until you have run out of dough.

Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes or until they are firm.

Remove the cookies from the oven and place them on the stovetop to cool for 2 minutes.

Lift the parchment paper by its short edges and transfer the cookies onto wire racks while they are still resting on the parchment paper.

Allow the cookies to cool completely on the wire racks before adding the chocolate topping.

Add the Topping

Scoop some of the melted chocolate onto the end of an offset spatula.

Spread the chocolate topping onto the top of each candy cane cookie.

Sprinkle the top of the cookie with crushed peppermint candies.

Allow the topping to set for 30 minutes before serving or storing the cookies.

Finished.