Candy Cane Cookies

I wanted to make a cookie the kids could help with...and make something different than sugar cookies since we'll already make these w/ our nativity cookie scene next week. I remember these cookies from treat plates when I was little. I've always thought they were tasty and thought they would be fun and do-able for the kids. By far, they are not perfect candy cane shape but we had lots of fun! Here's the recipe I used. I made the recipe twice...once for the red dough and once for the white dough.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp almond extract (I didn't have to I just used more vanilla)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp red food coloring

Cream together the shortening, butter, sugar, egg, and extracts. In a separate bowl, mix flour and salt and add to shortening mixture. Divide dough in half (or make another batch of dough:). Blend red food coloring into one half. Roll about 1 tsp of the red dough and 1 tsp of the white dough on a lightly floured surface into about 4" strips. Place strips side by side and press lightly together and twist like a rope. Curve top of rope down to look like the handle of a candy cane. Bake 9 minutes or until lightly browned at 350 degrees. Remove while still warm. Sprinkle w/ 1/2 cup of crushed candy cane and sugar...we used peppermint sprinkles mixed with sugar. When searching for a recipe of these cookies, I found a lot that just used a sugar cookie recipe w/ an extra 2 TBL of flour...think I'll give that a try next time.