Candy Cane Cookies

Ingrediants:

Instructions:

1. Beat butter and sugar until smooth.
2. Add eggs, almond extract, and salt to the butter mixture.
3. Add flour one cup at a time. Mix well.
4. Divide the mixture into halves.
5. Add red food colouring to one half. You will need quite a bit. Mix well.
6. Roll dough from each into "snakes" between 0.5 cm and 1 cm wide. The exact size does not matter, but it sould be the same for both. Shorter "snakes" are easier but slower. If the "snake" cracks in the middle and starts to fall apart lengthwise, pinch it together from a few directions to fix it.
7. Twist red and a white "snake" segments together. This will work better if you wrap the two "snakes" around each other in a helix (a.k.a. spiral) pattern instead of just lying them side by side and twisting the result.
8. Roll the twisted red and white "snakes" into a single "snake".
9. Cut off a 10 cm length of the combined "snake" and and bend into a "J" shape.
10. Place the cookie on an ungreased cookie sheet.
11. Repeat steps 6 - 8 as necessary. This will probably take several hours.
12. Bake at 375°F (190°C) for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies when the white portions turn golden brown.
13. Let the cookies cool for a minute before moving them to a cookie rack. Be careful, they are breakable.