Candy cane cookies take three sticks of butter

McClatchy Newspapers (MCT) - When I was a kid, you'd know Christmas was coming when boxes of butter started to appear in the refrigerator.

Real butter, not the margarine my mom normally bought. Keep in mind, this was the 1970s, when everyone slathered margarine on everything and no one had heard of trans fat.

Fast forward to today. Dropping a box of Land O' Lakes in my cart still gives me a warm holiday feeling, even in the middle of summer. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that, for this week's recipe, I chose a cookie that takes three _ yes, three _ sticks of butter.

For those of you who don't bake, three sticks is a lot, twice what you would use in, say, chocolate chip cookies.

Ahh, more warm holiday feelings.

The cookie? Chocolate candy cane cookies from epicurious.com.

The picture on the Web site made me swoon: dark chocolate cookies with a thick layer of pink frosting, dusted in crushed candy canes.

All the ingredients are available at the grocery store.

The kids, excited by the prospect of buying the candy canes, couldn't wait to get started.

Annie, 4, carefully measured out the unsweetened cocoa powder _ emphasis on unsweetened _ and jammed a spoonful into her mouth before anyone could stop her.

Rosa, 6, took great delight in pounding the little chocolate balls of dough into circles with the palms of her hands.

We baked the cookies just fine. But when we tried to take them off the cookie sheet, most of them broke, even though we had cooled them for the five minutes the recipe specified.

This left us with a lot of snacks, but only six individual cookies, enough to make three "cookie sandwiches" per the recipe.

While the cookies cooled completely, the girls and I made the filling. This was fun.

They dropped red food coloring in the powdered sugar-butter mixture and watched it turn pink.

Then it was time to put the "sandwiches" together.

I gave each girl two chocolate cookies, plus a tablespoon of frosting. They spread the frosting on one cookie, then squished the other cookie on top. They were too busy eating frosting off their fingers to roll the cookies in the bits of candy cane, so I did that.

When I finally tried a cookie, I couldn't decide if I liked it. The chocolate part was very rich and dense, which was good. The filling was ultra-creamy, but tasted too much of peppermint; not so good.

Still, I kept the recipe. A cookie that calls for three sticks of butter can't be all bad.

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CHOCOLATE CANDY CANE COOKIES

Bake time: About 11 minutes

Makes about 18 sandwich cookies

This recipe is from the December 2005 issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

Ingredients:

Cookies

1Âľ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)

ÂĽ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg

Filling

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

Âľ teaspoon peppermint extract

2 drops (or more) red food coloring

ÂĽ cup crushed red-and-white-striped candy canes or hard peppermint candies (about 4 ounces)

Instructions:

For cookies: Whisk flour, cocoa and salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended. Beat in egg. Add dry ingredients; beat until blended. Refrigerate dough one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out dough by level tablespoonfuls, then roll into smooth balls. Place balls on prepared baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Using bottom of glass or hands, flatten each ball to 2-inch round (edges will crack). Bake until cookies no longer look wet and small indentation appears when tops of cookies are lightly touched with fingers, about 11 minutes (do not overbake or cookies will become too crisp). Cool on sheet five minutes. Transfer to racks and cool.

For the filling: Using electric mixer, beat powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl until well blended. Add peppermint extract and two drops food coloring. Beat until light pink and well-blended, adding more food coloring by dropfuls if darker pink color is desired. Spread 2 generous teaspoons filling evenly over flat side of one cookie to edges; top with another cookie, flat side down, pressing gently to adhere. Repeat with remaining cookies and peppermint filling.

Place crushed candy canes on plate. Roll edges of cookie sandwiches in crushed candies (candies will adhere to filling).

Store in single layer in airtight container at room temperature up to three days or freeze up to two weeks.

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(Bee staff writer Kerry McCray can be reached at 578-2358 or at kmccray@modbee.com.)

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© 2008, The Modesto Bee (Modesto, Calif.).