A Christmas Tradition: Candy Cane Cookies

If you’ve been around Fresh Leeks for a while, you might be thinking…wait, is this a new blog post?! Yes, yes, it is! We know...it's been a minute.

If you’re new here, welcome! If you’ve been with us since the early days, thank you for sticking around while we’ve been a little quieter on the blog front. The truth is simple: we’ve been busy. Busy cooking. Busy catering. Busy growing our business. Busy feeding people, building community, and doing ALL the behind‑the‑scenes work that keeps Fresh Leeks going.

But the holidays remind us to also slow down, reflect, and reconnect. So, it felt like the perfect time to come back to this space. And what better way to return to the blog, than with a recipe rooted in family, tradition, and a fun, delicious Christmas cookie.

Food Traditions Matter (Especially at the Holidays)

Long before Fresh Leeks was in business, long before our catering events, weekly community meals, and campus food services, the Candy Cane Cookie has existed.

And in Chef Lee's life too. Almost every holiday season, his mother‑in‑law makes these cookies. Buttery cookies that are lightly sweet, coated in sugar, and flavored NOT with peppermint, but with almond extract, a subtle but unmistakable difference in her Candy Cane Cookie recipe than others.

Traditionally, these cookies are made with peppermint extract, leaning into that cool, minty "candy cane" flavor the cookie represents. But in Chef Lee’s family, his mother‑in‑law swapped peppermint extract for almond extract, giving her cookies a warm, nostalgic flavor that's instantly familiar...even if you can't place it!

Debbie's Candy Cane Cookies Recipe

Candy Cane Cookie Ingredients

Ingredients:

1/2 softened unsalted butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 egg

3 tsp almond extract

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all-pupose flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar (for coating cookies in)

1/2 tsp red food coloring or beet juice (for red coloring)

Baking Process:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

Mix butter and shortening

2. Mix butter and shortening.
   

3. Mix in confectioners sugar, egg, and vanilla and almond extract flavorings.
   

Blend and mix in other ingredients

4. Slowly blend in flour and salt.

5. Divide dough in half.

6. Blend the red food coloring or beet juice into ONE of the dough halves.

Divided dough with red food coloring in one half

7. Shape 1 tsp dough from each half into balls.

8. Then shape a ball from each half into 4-inch rope shape. For smooth, even ropes, roll them back and forth on a lightly-floured board.

Roll each dough into 4-inch ropes and press together

9. Place each color rope side by side, pressing together, and then twisting to look like a candy cane.

10. Shape cookies to look like a candy cane, completing the cookies one at a time (a sweet labor of love!).
    

    

    Twist dough together to look like candy canes

11. Carefully roll each candy cane cookie into the granulated sugar, and then place the cookie on an ungreased cookie sheet for baking.

12. Bake cookies for 10 minutes until lightly brown.

13. While the cookies are still warm, carefully re-roll them into the granulated sugar, and then place them on parchment paper to cool.

14. Package them up and share!
    

Debbie's Candy Cane Cookies

Make Them Yours

One of the best parts about sharing family recipes is watching them evolve. Maybe you’ll:

• Add other food coloring like green for brightly colored candy canes

• Use colored sugar for extra holiday flair

• Make them with your kids or grandkids and start a new holiday tradition.

That’s the point. Recipes are best shared, adapted, and loved.

From Our Kitchen to Yours

As you head into this holiday season, whether it feels joyful, overwhelming, quiet, loud, or somewhere in between, we hope these cookies find a place on your table and holiday traditions.

And if you’ve been meaning to come back to something that matters...a tradition, a recipe, a story, a blog...consider this your sign!

A Note on Coming Back to the Blog:

We’ll be honest: keeping up with a blog while running a growing food business isn’t easy.

Over the past year, Fresh Leeks has been focused on expanding our reach and services, deepening our community and client connections, and saying “yes” to opportunities that keep us doing what we love, which is feeding people.

But we know stories matter.

And this space is where we get to slow down and tell them. So, this post is our way of saying we’re still here, we're still cooking, we're still growing, AND we're still deeply rooted in the people and traditions that shaped us.

Thank you for being part of our journey and traditions!

Happy Holidays! 💚

Chef Lee

#freshleeks #recipes #candycanecookies #cookierecipe #happyholidays