Homemade Candy Cane Joe Joe’s
As a child I’d lay in bed listening to the murmurs and fluttered activity that happened just outside of my bedroom door. I listened for evidence of what I feared the most; that my parents stayed up late, partying and eating ice cream and cookies while I was in bed. Vivid scenes played in my head of my parents on the couch congratulating themselves on finally getting us to sleep, high fives were exchanged while one flipped on the tv and the other ran to the kitchen to fetch the late-night party food.
Now I’m on the other side of the bedroom door and realizing that my fears as a child were completely warranted because in our house we totally party when the kidlets are sleeping. There aren’t streamers and party hats and sometimes the party ends with me asleep on the couch by 9:30 but there are often marathon sessions of The West Wing and currently there are cookies.
To fuel these late night parties, in a moment of genius or weakness, it’s hard to decide which sometimes, I grabbed a box of Chocolate Covered Candy Cane Joe Joe’s at Trader Joe’s. For the next few nights after that I’d tiptoe to the cupboard grab a cookie from the box. Slowly I’d nibble away at the cookie wondering why I’d only grabbed one box and why isn’t Jed Bartlet a real presidential candidate?
Before you start thinking that I’m completely heartless and I don’t share my cookies with my poor children let me assure you that they were the reason I thought to make these cookies ourselves. Well, that and my box was almost out.
I used Deb’s recipe for Homemade Oreos (which is actually her version of Wayne Brachman’s recipe from Retro Desserts) as my starting point. I should actually say, WE because my boys nearly made these cookies themselves. They were particularly helpful when it came time to roll the dough into dozens of gumball sized balls. They also thoroughly enjoyed smashing candy canes into thousands of tiny pieces.
The recipe calls for shortening in the filling and I had Gabe pick some up on his way home because although I never use the stuff otherwise but I craved a very accurate rendition and nothing gives that same odd yet comforting mouthfeel like shortening. If you prefer, skip the shortening and use all butter. That is perfectly acceptable.
I took these cookies one step further and dipped them in bittersweet chocolate and topped them with a bit of salt which tips the scale from too sweet to just right. If you aren’t a fan of peppermint feel free to leave that out, if you’re a super fan feel free to add more.
No longer hidden in the cupboards and hoarded for our late night parents-only parties, these cookies are now the star of our 2015 holiday cookie plate.
