Peppermint and Vanilla Butter Cookies



Just as wreaths, stockings and mistletoes signify the spirit of christmas, cookies and cakes do their part in spreading the joy all around. As the festival of christmas is just a few days away, people have started baking goodies and packing them in decorative tin boxes and wrapping papers, shipping them across to their loved ones and friends, wishing them joy and success in the days to come. Some flavors and smells reign the kitchens in these festive days, including, but not limited to chocolate, peppermint, vanilla, and of course, gingerbread! Joining in the fun and having found a reason to bake more often, I decided to go for a batch of these beautiful pink and white Swirl Cookies flavored with peppermint and vanilla. I love the candy canes and the beautiful ribbon patterns that they form, but I can't take too much of peppermint in one go. So here's the perfect solution, these basic sugar cookies, with a hint of peppermint and all the goodness of the lovely colors.

Ingredients
1 cup butter or margarine - softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tspn vanilla essence
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tspn peppermint extract
1/4 tspn red food color

Method
Heat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed. Stir in the flour, then divide the dough in half. Stir peppermint extract and food color into one half of dough, while keeping the other part as it is.

Now again divide each color of dough in half (making 2 white and 2 pink parts).

Now take each part of the dough, and roll it on a generously floured surface into a thick cylindrical rope, about 12 inches long. Place 2 ropes, 1 red and 1 white, side by side. Now twist them together with your hands so they get entwined. Repeat with the remaining 2 pieces of dough.

Now make small balls from each double-colored dough, then shape each into a flat cookie shape. You can use a cookie cutter to give them shape, or just grease a steel bowl (katori) with oil and use this to give shape to the cookie. It should be fairly easy to do it with your hands too, just shape them like small cutlets.

Place them about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet and allow to cool completely on the wire rack. There, your beautiful pink and white swirled cookies are ready to add a festive decor to your holiday baking!

Let's relive the spirit of Christmas; bake a batch of cookies and donate them to any organisation and then feel happy on seeing the smiles on the faces of little children. This is my contribution to the "Drop In and Decorate" event started by Lydia, and also to Susan's Christmas Cookies Event. There's no better time than Christmas to share the goodness around, and what better way to gift something than food?!!

Tip: You can store these Peppermint and Vanilla Butter cookies in an air-tight container and refrigerate them for longer use. But it's best to refrigerate the dough until you want to make the cookies rather than storing the cookies themselves.

Update: These beautiful cookies were not only selected as one of the top 10 finalists from over 212 entries in Susan's Eat Christmas Cookies event, it actually won the Best Christmas Cookie award!! Yipppeee!!! I am so thrilled!! Thanks so much to all the judges and my readers, friends, and family who picked out these cookies as the Winner! Thanks a lot to Susan, for organizing this fun event, and also for presenting me with a fabulous Sherry Yard's new cookbook Desserts By the Yard. Now you all can look forward to more delicious desserts on this blog!!

More Cookie Recipes:
Chewy Chocolate-Chip Cookies
Marshmallow and Chocolate Mud Cookies
Delicious French Madeleines


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39 comments :

Anonymous said...

Perfect!!! I am so in love with the colorful cookies:) I don't care how they taste, I just wanna eat all of them!!!

-Anita

Susan from Food Blogga said...

These are the merriest cookies, Mansi. I just adore the colors.

Anonymous said...

These are the most gorgeous looking cookies ever! and it doesn't sound complicated at all!! plus there are no eggs in the recipe! I'm totally gonna make these!

Thanks Mansi!

-Angel

Mansi said...

Anita, Angel - They looks just too cute right! and yes, they are eggless, and pretty easy to make:)

Susan - these are coming your way, don't worry:) your and Lydia's events were in my mind when I made these!:D

Anonymous said...

very festive, these cookies look. happy holidays to you.

bee

Cynthia said...

Cookies do do their bit for Christmas and yours are so pretty.

Manasi said...

These are SO PRETTY!!!
my problem with cookies are (hv tried nankatai) they become Hard!! dunno why :( that kinda saps my confidence in baking.....

Anonymous said...

these are absolute beauties, and I do like peppermint with its tingly taste, so I'm surely baking these cookies!!

-Sharon

Namratha said...

These are such pretty cookies Mansi that I sure wouldn't want to eat them but rather just look at them hehe..:) nice recipe too!

Mansi said...

Bee, Cynthia - yeah, they do have the "cute and pretty" advantage:)

Manasi - that should not keep you from trying! I've had many failure too...heheh...try using more butter and egg next time, might just do the trick:)

Sharon - I'm glad someone is appreciating these for the flavor and not just the looks:D hahaha...let me know how it goes!

Namratha - I know, I couldn't take my eyes off them either! the color combination turned out exactly as I had imagined it!

EC said...

Super combination of pink and white in the cookies

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

Thank you so much for making these cookies in honor of Drop In & Decorate! I'm adding you to the list of bloggers who are helping to spread the word. I'm so grateful.

Sylvia said...

What a gorgeous cookies. I copi the recipe for later

Anonymous said...

perfect beauties, need I say anything more?!! they are so adorable:)

Johanna

Pravs said...

Amazing..beautiful..looks like a piece of art :)

Cakelaw said...

How beautiful they look!

Anonymous said...

Mansi, beautiful colored cookies for the holidays! btw, I've included you in my new link page. I remember when I was first getting started and you always came by and left me very kind words. I never forgot that.Happy holidays to you and yours :)

Kribha said...

They look so cute and I love the recipe too. No eggs? wow...that's intresting.Got to try this.

Minal said...

hi mansi,
your cookies r verrry sexy and and also verry delicious i liked it very muchhhhhhhhhhh as it was eggless wow hats off to u. wish u and all the friends a very happy christmas.

Raks said...

Lovely looking cookies and novel idea Mansi!! Superb!!!!

Mansi said...

Ok..I'm a bit late on replying to your comments..sorry folks, and thank you all for the wonderful words!

Cris said...

They look so yummy! And perfect for this season!

Susan said...

It's the day after Xmas, and I am all "cookied-out," but these are so darned pretty and festive that I wish I could rewind the clock just a little bit to bake them up.

Anonymous said...

Mansi, these are amazing! I just voted for them, and I hope you win so we can get more lovely desserts from the cookbook:)

-Annie

Anonymous said...

Those are beautiful....and sound delicious!

Anonymous said...

I love Mint and Vanilla together; So fresh and clean.
Great post.

Hillary said...

Very adorable cookies you've got there! Oh and they sound delicious too :)

michelle said...

Such pretty colors! Good luck in the finals! :)

Anonymous said...

they looks as delicous as the flavors that go in! I've voted for them already! hope you win:)

-Nicky

Coffee and Vanilla said...

Congratulations Mansi!
Your cookies truly deserved to win :)

Margot

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Mansi!

KonkaniBlogger said...

Congratulations Mansi..Very well deserved..

Anonymous said...

Congratualtions Mansi!
Beautiful cookies and I love the peppermint flavouring.
Ronell

Purnima said...

Manasi..the colour of the cookies n pattern it formed is splendid..congratulations for winning amidst 212 entries!

Mansi said...

Thanks for all the best wishes friends! The victory was possible due to your votes and support, and I'm so obliged to you all!!:)

Daily Meals said...

Sorry Mansi! I am late to comment. Congratulations on winning the best cookies award. Those cute, white and pink cookies really deserve it.

Deepa Kuber said...

They look yummy, Hey i tried to find beet cutlets in ur blog, but i couldnt find them , can u leave a comment with ur recipe link in it?

deepa said...

It's a diffrent type of cookies.

roses said...

Recipe is very well defined....
rosesandgifts.com