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Chocolate and Vanilla Candy Cane Cookies

12/21/2014

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Make this easy recipe as a quick cookie that most anyone will love. Since it requires the use of play dough skills be sure and invite all the kids in the house to help with the rolling and shaping of the dough to create the candy cane cookies.  Sound like fun?  You can make a lot of small or big cookies. May need just 1/2 the recipe, or you can freeze half the dough for later unless lots of cookie monsters to feed.  Cookies store well too.

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Make the Dough First

Choose how to mixing tool:
Food Processor
Bowl with Hand Mixer
Deluxe Mixer
By Hand

We used a food processor that worked great on the dough until we added cocoa powder which made it get thicker so had to finish mixing my hand to avoid burning out the motor.

Much harder by hand and takes awhile that way but you will get there.

Start by thoroughly mixing everything but the flour and salt.  It is only after these are completely mixed do you start to add the flour and salt.  Keep adding the flour until it disappears and then add more about a half cup at a time.  

Split dough equally in half and then mix the cocoa and extra butter or shortening starting with the extra fat before powder.

Better to first add one more tablespoon of butter or shortening before adding the cocoa powder and allow it to mix in so will not get as thick from the cocoa powder.  

If you use melted chocolate you may have to add more dry ingredients or nothing at all.  


Goal is for both vanilla and chocolate dough to have the same consistency.  

You want enough flour so that the dough does not stick to surface, but not too much so it cracks and will not stay together so needs to stay pliable like play dough.  Will be very dry cookie after it is cooked if too much flour is added.

Ingredients for dough:
1/2 Cup Butter
1/2 Cup Shortening
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
1 Egg
2 teaspoons vanilla (imitation not recommended)
1 teaspoon Peppermint Oil (optional)
2 1/2 Cups Flour or 2 Cups Flour and 1/2 Cup Almond Flour
1 teaspoon Salt (Real Salt or sea salt. Morton has GMOs and processed)

For Chocolate Dough:
After dividing dough in half, mix one half of dough with a 1/4 Cup of melted chocolate or 1/8 Cup of cocoa and one tablespoon butter or shortening.  

How to make the Candy Cane Dust
3/4 Cup Candy Cane dust and chunks (Trujoy only organic choice).
1/4 Cup Sugar

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It might be easier to just try and roll out small amounts of dough at a time.  You can make all the cookies the same size or make many sizes.  There's no right or wrong way.  Roll the chocolate and vanilla separate, and then put them together and start to twist the dough and form the candy cane.  
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Flatten each end of the candy cane and then flatten the top so that the candy cane sprinkles will stay in place when you add them later.  You may want to make sure after flattening that the cookie is not stuck to the pan.  Play with the dough to get the desired shape as may take a little work.
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Make sure the oven is preheated to 375 degrees and don't over cook. Took mine out right before turned brown or around 9-11 minutes.  Bigger cookies will take a little longer to cook than the smaller ones so be careful not to burn.

Next time will try and put on the candy cane sprinkles half way through cooking and see it they will stick to the cookie better.  Here we put them on as soon as we took the cookies done out of the oven so can do that too.
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Get to know Trujoy Organic Candy Company

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You won't find GMOs, High Frutose Corn Syrup (HFCS), GMO Sugar Beet Sugar, Chemicals, Artificial Flavors or Colors, but instead a safe and delicious alternative to other popular candies such as Starbursts.  The flavor is perfect and new Choco Chews are also very satisfying.  

Go here to find more companies like Trujoy!

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CHOOSE YOUR COOKIE FAT WISELY

Organic Butter over conventional butter and shortenings is ALWAYS a better substitute for good Omega 3 fats, Vitamin D, flavor and texture.  A combination of butter and shortening can also work well.

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Organic, Organic Grassfed, and Organic Raw Grassfed butter all add good fats and flavor to cookies.
Our favorite brands.

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Spectrum is part of Hain, a corporation that has a history of buying out successful organic companies.  Many begin as family start ups.  Organic selections downsized after Hain takes ownership.

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Spectrum is made from palm oil.  Large corporations have NOT harvested sustainably so years later much has been lost and now gone or endangered.  Arrowhead Mills was also purchased by Hain Celestial Group and makes organic bulk grain and flour products used in cookies.

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Bob's Red Mill is a product choice you can feel good about when baking products are needed.  Bob's Red Mill should not be confused with Arrowhead Mills, a Hain Celestial owned company and one of the biggest food corporations in the country. Bob's Red Mill owner Bob Moore transferred ownership of the company to employees in year 2010 so profit paid to employees, not stockholders.  


Choose mindfully when you buy.  Our collective dollars are what keeps the corporate machine going, stop or change it.  


Giving our dollars to local, family and ethical businesses that are doing things right now, not after forced to do keeps consumers one up. Being a smart consumer not only protects your health now but in the future by keeping diversity. 


Corporate control has already turned the organic switch off companies once they own it so willing to change any product from organic to non organic no matter it was always that way or not because all about increasing profit margin and cheaper ingredients, same volume, gets you there fast, and many times it takes awhile for consumers to notice the change.  


In the end te consumer ends up with less organic choices and organic farmers lose business. 


 In the end consumers lose the power of choice.

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Nutiva is a company worth supporting and has given back to campaigns to improve food label transparency.  Nutiva puts sustainability and quality organic ingredients first.  They specialize in coconut products. There are special fats in coconut that are also showing promise for providing our brains and other parts of our bodies with the the nutrients they need to stay healthy.  It is always a good idea to fit coconut and coconut oil in when possible and your health will benefit.  


Coconut oil does not give you as much moisture in baking so may create a "dryer" product so be careful to not add too much flour if this is a fat you choose.
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Why the fat you choose is so important:
Since this is a basic cookie recipe, the fat source is a big part of the texture, flavor, and calories for the cookie.  Pick calories that bring nutrition too.

Fat is an essential nutrient if you pick the right ones.  Otherwise "bad fats" can do more harm than good, like trans fats for example.

We encourage you to try different combinations.  Luckily there are more choices that ever especially if you are a vegan or trying to reduce you total animal intake.

You can try making your cookies 100% from one fat, a 50/50 combination, or your own balance of different fat sources.  


Most important is to keep it real, organic, and from a sustainable local source when possible. The oils we eat in the USA is a global issue where choices we make here can impact endangered species of plants and animals in other countries, and the livelihood of the local people that live there.

By choosing sustainable oil sources we can not only make the world a better place for all, but improve our own health.  There are many traps to fall into when choosing an oil such as trans fats, GMOs, rancidity, fraud, and low Omega 3s. It is important to have a balance and choose the best sources.  You can have too many of the wrong kind of fat sources and not enough of the good kind!  Keep it Real and organic.

Decorating Christmas Cookies Ideas

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    Elaine McFadden, MPH, RD, Host Smart Health Talk Radio Show

    With many years of experience with organic farming, produce, and manufacturing, Elaine McFadden wanted to use her experience to help educate consumers to help make the kind of choices for their family that supports health and prevents disease. It is harder than ever to shop for food and know what is safe.

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