I saw this idea for making candy cane sugar cookies that were rolled in sugar before baking, and I  wanted to adjust it to work with a delicious gluten-free sugar cookie dough. I really love how this particular sugar cookie dough ends up tasting - and it worked even better than I had anticipated with this dough. You can easily pipe the dough, chill just a bit, then twist the dough colors together and dip in sugar. Then you just shape it into the cute candy cane shapes as you pop it on the pan. So easy and festive! Enjoy! 

Candy Cane Vanilla Sugar Cookies - just out of the oven! 

Cute Candy Cane Vanilla Sugar Cookies

Makes several dozen candy cane cookies, or 2-4 dozen small circle cookies and ~2-4 dozen candy cane cookies

In a large bowl, whisk together: (it's important to mix dry ingredients separately in GF baking to avoid lumps)
2 cups Kristin's Gluten Free Flour Mix
3/4 cup white rice flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

In a mixer, cream together:
1 cup butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cup white sugar

Add and mix in, scraping down a few times:
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

Add the dry ingredients in, and mix just until combined.  

If making some round cookies, do the following: 

Scoop 1 Tbsp scoops for round cookies onto parchment-lined pans.  Use a flat glass, wrapped in plastic wrap.  Dip it briefly in water and flatten each cookie.  Dip between every 1-2 cookies to keep it from sticking to the dough. These do spread just a bit, but not too much, so if I keep the cookies small, I find I can just fit 24 to a tray. Make one or two trays of round cookies. Bake each tray of flattened cookies at 350 F for 7-9 minutes, until light browned on edges. Remove from oven and let rest a few minutes before moving the cookies to a wire rack to fully cool. You can frost with my favorite marshmallow frosting recipe - which works great for coloring and piping or spread with the recipe on this other gluten-free sugar cookies recipe. 

Flattened round cookies, ready for baking.

Round cookies, out of the oven. For a crispier cookie, let them get a bit more browned than these ones were. Just depends on personal preference. 

Divide remaining cookie batter and put 1/2 the white batter into a medium freezer ziploc.  Mix in red food coloring paste to desired red color.  Place the red batter into a separate medium freezer ziploc. 

Snip a small corner ~1/4" of each ziploc bag.  On a parchment-lined baking pan, pipe thin stripes of one color lines on the pan. This is the lenght of your candy cane cookie, so keep in mind how large or small you'll want the candy cane cookie once you bend it to make it into the proper shape. Pipe the other color on top of the first color, so you have a large pan covered with red and white sticks of cookie batter.  Place in the refrigerator for ~20 minutes to chill. 

Thin strips of red and white piped together, then chilled. This method was easy and quick! No rolling needed.

On a large plate, place: 

~3-4 Tbsp granulated sugar, add more, as needed

Pick up each candy cane stick and twist to combine the colors. Gently roll in the sugar.  Place on a fresh baking tray lined with parchment paper, curving into the candy cane shape.  Repeat until you have a tray of candy cane cookies, ready for baking.  Bake at 350 for 7-9 minutes.  Baking until lightly browned edges will give you a more crispy cookie, which we love, but you can choose how soft/crispy you prefer.    Repeat with your dough until you have all your cookies prepared and rolled and baked!  

Let any baked cookies rest at least 5 minutes on the pan before removing to wire rack to fully cool.  

You can see the stripes have been picked up, twisted, dipped in sugar, then placed in shape on the cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Ready for baking! Make sure to leave a bit of room for them to spread.

Fresh from the oven!

If you have extra batter, you can pipe it onto a parchment-lined pan and bake. We made hearts with the extra colored batter - which were then eaten immediately. 

Hearts haphazardly piped with the leftover cookie batter. They baked quickly, but with the nicely browned edges they were flaky and crispy to eat fresh from the oven.

Store candy canes in a well-sealed tupperware or similar container at room temperature for up to a few days. ***Store the frosted sugar cookies separately from the candy canes, or the candy cane biscuits will lose their crispness.*** 

For the round sugar cookies, my girls and I decorated them with my favorite marshmallow frosting recipe - which works great for coloring and piping. I think my favorite were the gnomes! 

We just popped the different colors of frosting into medium freezer ziplocs and snipped tiny corners. Then piped and added sprinkles when we were inspired.

My favorites are definitely the gnomes. Will make those again. 

They had SO much fun. 

Gluten Free Candy Cane Vanilla Sugar Cookies Recipe by Successfully Gluten Free!