This year was the second annual Family Christmas Cookie Extravaganza–a gathering of all the womenfolk in a kitchen, competing for oven time and cookie sheets. It’s usually good testing ground for new cookie recipes. The spoils are divided up amongst the participants, and voila! The cookie baking season has begun.

Hoping to avoid the chocolate chip/sugar cookie bonanza of last year, I turned to the ever reliable allrecipes.com. Among the new cookie recipes they had posted was one for chocolate candy cane cookies. Despite one burned batch, I’ve decided to add these to the holiday repertoire as something “just a little different” and rather festive looking!

INGREDIENTS:

1 (8 ounce) package of softened cream cheese

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

4 squares of baker’s semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted

1 (6 ounce) package of baker’s premium white baking chocolate

12 hard peppermint candies, crushed

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven t 350 degrees F. Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well-blended. Add flour and baking soda; mix well. Blend in semi-sweet chocolate.
2. Shape tablespoonfuls of dough into 52 balls. Roll each ball into 3-inch long rope. Place, two-inches apart on baking sheet bending top of each slightly to resemble a candy cane (Note: I made mine a bit larger without any problems–just fewer cookies! You do not need to grease the cookie sheet.)
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned; cool 5 minutes on baking sheet (unless you burnt them!–then remove them immediately before they burn more…). Transfer to wire racks; cool completely. Microwave white chocolate as directed on the package; drizzle over cookies. Sprinkle with crushed candies. Let stand until chocolate is firm.

Final note: I found that drizzling each cookie separately over the bowl of white chocolate worked best.