White Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

Happy hump day KBK crew! With holiday gatherings around the corner, it's time to level up your dessert game. Get ready to impress taste buds and spread the festive cheer with my latest creation: White Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies.

Picture this: the buttery goodness of your favorite white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, but with a merry twist. We're ditching the nuts and embracing the holiday spirit with smashed candy canes. The best part? You get to channel your inner cookie artist by taking a hammer to those candy canes. Pure therapy, right? But hey, you do you – discretionary advised!

Here's the scoop – this recipe is a breeze! In just about 10 minutes, you'll have the dough ready to roll, and another 10-15 minutes in the oven, and voila! You've got yourself a batch of festive delights that'll steal the show at any holiday party.

I used these peppermint flavored baking chips from TJs & they were so good I couldn’t stop snacking on them on my drive home! 10/10 recommend but you are welcome to use plain white chocolate chips. Side story: While whipping up these delightful cookies, I had a little mishap – I broke a nail. Turns out, the culprit was the candy cane hammering session. As I went to town on those sweet canes, every tap had me imagining bits of my nails taking flight.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 1/4 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 egg room temperature

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• 1/2 tsp almond extract (if you don’t have it, add more vanilla extract)

• 1 cup peppermint baking chips (or white chocolate chips)

• 1/4 crushed candy canes plus more for dusting on top

Instructions:

1. Gather all your ingredients and preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a larger mixing bowl, cream together the room-temperature unsalted butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

4. To the creamed butter and sugar, add the room-temperature egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract (or extra vanilla extract). Mix until well combined.

5. Gradually add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients, stirring until a cookie dough forms. Be careful not to overmix; just combine until no streaks of flour remain.

6. Gently fold in the peppermint baking chips (or white chocolate chips) and the crushed candy canes into the cookie dough. This is where the festive magic begins!

7. Using a cookie scoop or a spoon, drop rounded portions of dough onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving enough space between each for spreading.

8. Take some extra crushed candy canes and delicately sprinkle them on top of each cookie for that extra festive touch.

9. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Keep an eye on them to ensure they're baked to your liking.

10. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack. Once cooled, indulge in the deliciousness of your homemade White Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies!