Gluten-Free Candy Cane Cookies
These Gluten-Free Candy Cane Cookies are fun, easy to make, festive... and you'd never know they're GF. They have great flavour and texture!
Note: This recipe was first posted on my original blog, Celebration Generation, on November 10, 2014. It was transferred over to this blog on Feb 25, 2021
When I was a kid, there were a few foods from the holidays that come to mind:
My aunt's dill dip Noelles cookies, and Sauerkraut Balls... Then, there were the Nanaimo Bars and Confetti Bars. I don't even associate those with any particular person, maybe it was just whoever got around to it? Those bars were pretty ubiquitous back home in Winnipeg...
Anyway, extended-family contributions aside, there were two sweets I associated with my immediate household: The weird (but awesome) peppermint patties that my maternal host would make. (I later developed my Peppermint Patties around the idea.)... and candy cane cookies.
It's time to make some gluten-free candy cane cookies!
Given that I can no longer handle gluten, this version of those candy cane sugar cookies is gluten-free... but you'd never know it. As with all of my other Gluten-free Recipes, these were developed from the ground up, rather than being an adapted normal gluten recipe.
I chose the flours, other ingredients, and techniques to work together to produce a cookie that not only tastes great, but also has a great texture. These are butter cookies the way I like them - somewhat soft, rather than crunchy.
There's none of the chalkiness or weird aftertastes generally associated with gluten-free baking. They just taste like Christmas, and are totally suitable for a mixed crowd, as far as gluten allergies go.
How to Make Gluten-Free Candy Cane Cookies
I’ve been told that people don’t like photos in the recipe card itself, so let me go over the technique here, in the post!
Once you’ve made the dough...
Divide and Tint Your Dough
- Divide your dough into 3 pieces: 2 larger balls of about the same size, and one smaller ball (about half the size of the other two).
I find that if I don’t do the green ball much smaller than the other two, the amount of green on the final cookie is overwhelming. At half the amount, it ends up seeming to be an equal amount to the other two, in the end!
- Add food colouring to the balls - red to one of the larger ones, white to the other (optional), and green to the smallest.
When it comes to painting with food colouring, I prefer to use a nice quality gel based colour, such as Americolor (what I used when I was in the USA), or ChefMaster (Which is the option more readily available here!).
If I have some on hand, I’ll add some Americolor White Gel Paste to colour the white piece, but it’s not necessary.
Without white colouring, that part of the dough will be a brownish ivory colour - still totally identifiable as a candy cane, without colouring it white!
- Knead in until colouring is evenly incorporated in each dough ball.
I like to wear nitrile gloves for this step, because gel food colouring is no joke!
Once the doughs are all tinted as you want them, wrap each - separately - in plastic film, chill for 1 hour.
Divide and Conquer!
Preheat oven to 375F, line cookie sheets with parchment paper, and wash your hands!
- Divide each dough ball into 4 equal pieces, and each of those 4 pieces into 4 pieces. You should have 16 pieces of each colour.
You can divide the first 4 pieces each into the next 4 pieces right from the cut state, or you can roll each of the original 4 into long “snakes”, and divide it from there.
When I was first developing and photographing, I miscalculated on how big the cookies were going to be - I thought I was originally going to end up with 16 cookies, not 32.
So, I divided the original 4 into the 16 by rolling, as I thought that was *it* for the dividing. ANYWAY.
Roll Your Candy Cane Cookies!
There are two different techniques you can use here. One will produce a smooth Candy Cane Cookie, and the other will produce a cookie with a fun, rope type texture. (I've got video demonstrating both techniques a bit further down, also!)
Smooth Candy Canes
- Take 1 each of the 3 colours, and roll them out to long snakes of dough, about 10" in length. Aim to get them relatively even in thickness throughout the length of each rope.
- Line the dough up as shown, gently squish together to adhere.
- Roll the joined dough pieces together gently, just to secure and form a single, rounded rope about 11-12" in length.
- Cut your rope into 2 equal lengths of about 6" each.
- Gently twist each length to form the spiral design, then shape into a candy cane shape.
Place on prepared baking sheets as you finish them.
Rope Candy Canes
- Take 1 each of the 3 colours, and roll them out to long snakes of dough, about 12" in length. Aim to get them relatively even in thickness throughout the length of each rope.
- Cut each rope into 2 equal lengths of about 6" each.
- Take one each of the 3 colours of 6" dough rope, stack and gently twist to form the spiral design.
- Shape into a candy cane shape.
Place on prepared baking sheets as you finish them.
Bake Your Christmas Cookies!
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom.
Cool for 5 minutes or so before transferring them off the pan, allow to cool to room temperature.
Once completely cool store in an airtight container until serving.
Enjoy!
More Gluten-Free Holiday Recipes!
Looking for something festive - for the whole family? Here are some great options!
Gluten-Free Fruitcake
Gluten-Free Fruitcake Cookies
Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cookies
Gluten-Free Maple Pumpkin Pie
Gluten-Free Pumpkin Spice Mini Doughnuts
Gluten-Free Paska [Easter Bread]
Gluten-Free Sauerkraut Buns [Pyrizhky]
Gluten-Free Stuffing Recipe
Pumpkin Cheese Ball - Classier Version
Pumpkin Cheese Ball - Trashier Version
Share the Love!
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Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
Gluten-Free Candy Cane Cookies
Equipment
- Parchment Paper
Ingredients
- 1 cup White rice flour
- 1 cup Sorghum flour
- ¼ cup Coconut flour
- 2 tablespoon Tapioca Starch/Flour
- 2 teaspoon Xanthan gum
- 1 teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ¾ cup Butter softened
- 1 ¼ cup Granulated sugar
- 2 Large eggs
- 2-3 teaspoon Peppermint extract
- Gel food colouring
Instructions
- Whisk together all dry ingredients (except sugar) until well combined, set aside.
- In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.
- Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add peppermint extract, and mix until well incorporated and smooth.
- Slowly add dry mix to the mixer bowl, and carefully mix until well incorporated and smooth.
- Divide dough into 3 balls - 2 larger balls of about the same size, and one smaller ball (about half the size of the other two)
- Add food colouring to the balls - red to one of the larger ones, white to the other (optional), and green to the smallest. Knead in until colouring is evenly incorporated in each dough ball.
- Wrap dough balls - separately - in plastic film, chill for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375F, line cookie sheets with parchment paper
- Divide each dough ball into 4 equal pieces, and each of those 4 pieces into 4 pieces. You should have 16 pieces of each colour.
- Following your choice of directions in the post, roll the dough balls out into thin logs, cut in half, and roll into candy cake cookies. Place on prepared baking sheets as you finish them.
- Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom.
- Once completely cool store in an airtight container until serving.
Nutrition
These Gluten-Free Candy Cane Cookies are fun, easy to make, festive... and you'd never know they're GF. They have great flavour and texture!
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