Raspberry Shortbread Candy Cane Cookies

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving Day happened to be extra special in our family because my little sous chef turned 8 years old.  *Sigh*  My little girl isn't so little anymore!  I planned a spa-themed birthday party complete with hair, manis, pedis, etc. and it was SO much fun!

Because of unfortunate circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to share as many Thanksgiving recipes as I had planned for.  But Thanksgiving 2012 is a memory and now it's time to switch gears to Christmas!  

These shortbread cookies are so buttery and delicate.  Pile on some sweet icing and fruity raspberry preserves and you have yourself quite the delicious (and adorable) Christmas cookie!  These cookies are a spin off of my favorite Christmas cookie, Raspberry Ribbons

Ingredients:
Yields 48 (4-inch tall candy cane shape) cookies

• 1 c butter, room temperature 
• 1/2 c white sugar 
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 c all-purpose flour 
• 1/2 tsp baking powder 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1 c raspberry preserves 
• White icing 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  

In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.  

Roll out the dough into 1/4-inch thickness.  Using a cookie cutter, cut out the candy cane shapes.  Gather the scraps and roll the dough out into 1/4-inch thickness.  Cut out more candy cane shapes with the cookies cutter.  Repeat until all of the dough has been used.  Place the cookies on lightly greased baking sheets.  

Bake for 12 to 17 minutes, or until the bottom edges just begin to brown.  Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes.  Transfer the cookies to a work surface for decorating.  

Pipe the outline of each cookie with white icing.  Carefully spread approximately 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of the raspberry preserves in the center of each cookie using a spoon.  This works best when the cookies are still slightly warm.  Pipe zigzag lines on top of the preserves with more white icing.  

Enjoy!