The Edmonds side of the family makes these traditionally on Christmas morning, and I wanted to continue the tradition as Aaron absolutely loves these little canes! I did find them quite scrumptious, and they should be for all the sugar they have…but splurging a little is okay with me for such special occasions! I share this recipe just to show that I am not a healthy cook all the time, although they are free of additional preservatives, and have fresh nuts, cranberries and raisins, so that counts for something. Additionally, keeping my hubby happy is an important priority! 
A little sugar keeps life exciting!
CANES:
1 cup whole milk
4 cups unbleached white flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1 cup butter
1 package active dry yeast, 1 scant Tbsp
1/4 cup warm water
2 beaten eggs
FILLING:
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped nuts
1/3 cup honey
1 1/2 tsp grated orange peel
GLAZE:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp butter, softened
1 Tbsp half-and-half
TO MAKE DOUGH: In a saucepan, warm milk to lukewarm. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, and lemon peel. Cut in butter until the mixture is like coarse meal. In measuring cup, dissolve yeast in warm water. To flour mixture, add dissolved yeast, lukewarm milk and eggs. Combine lightly to form dough. Cover dough tightly, refrigerate for at least 2 hours; can hold up to 3 days.
TO MAKE FILLING: In saucepan, combine cranberries, sugar, raisins nuts, honey and orange peel. Bring to a boil and boil 5 minutes. Cool. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
TO ASSEMBLE: Divide dough in half. On floured board, roll each half into 18-by-15-inch rectangle; spread each piece with half the filling.
Fold in from the 18-inch sides of rectangle, folding the dough in thirds, as you would fold a letter; the dough will be about 6 inches wide and 15 inches long (as pictured above). Press edges to seal. Cut into 1-inch pieces. Twist each piece a couple of times, holding by the ends. Place on greased baking sheets and pull one end around to make a hook of a cane (as pictured below).
Bake 10-15 minutes. For best results, use double baking sheet or an airbake baking sheet. While still warm, drizzle the canes with powdered sugar glaze.
TO MAKE GLAZE: Mix powdered sugar with softened butter and add enough half and half to make it of drizzling consistency.
This recipe makes about 24 candy canes, and could easily be frozen. I made the full batch and froze half of it for another special ocassion.
These were a BIG hit with my family – even my 6, 4, and 2-year olds loved them! I made them with part wheat flour and they were fantastic! Thanks for sharing, and thanks for your blog…very encouraging! Blessings!
Can you make these with whole wheat white flour?
Lindsay, I would love to add some of your posts to my pinterest, but there are never pictures recognized for me to “pin”. I don’t know why that is, but maybe its the way you upload pics on your blog. I love to share your blog with others and pinterest is a great network for that!
That is good to know. I’ll discuss with my techy husband. Thanks!
Hi, is the yeast one pkg + 1 scant T, or is it one pkg ( which is the equivalent of a scant T)? Thank you!
Do you think that you could replace the sugar in the dough with Rapadura or Sucanat? Can’t wait to try these!
Sure, except for the fact that it will probably affect the color. Rapadura and sucanat tend to add a brownish tint to the dough.
Ooohh yum! I will have to try these, they sound and look delicious
They look cute and they sound yummy! Thanks for sharing.
These are very original and they look really tasty. I am going to print this recipe out because I want to try and make these for Christmas ’09. Thank you for the recipe.
Lindsay, I made these this afternoon and they were wonderful1 Would you mind if I posted about it on my blog and linked to here? Thanks!
Go for it!
It’s posted! Thank you. They were yummy!!
They look so good. To bad I’m the only one who likes cranberries. Hmm that might be a good things when it comes to these.
It so happens that I am not a fan of cranberries or nuts myself, and was hesitant to make these at first, but as I desired to please my husband I gave it a swirl. Low and behold they were delicious!
this is an old, old recipe that is one of our family traditions.
I make an apple filling for those in my family who don’t like cranberries. It works really well!
Those look awesome I want to try some right now =)!
These look delicious! I made something very similar on Christmas morning for my family! I love your site. After reading about your meal planning, I was inspired and actually began working on a monthly meal plan for January. Thanks so much!
These look absolutely delicious! I will definitely be making them
Thanks so much for sharing the recipe.
These are so cute!
I’m totally not into sweets right now, but I did make our traditional sugar-laden Christmas breakfast, too. 
Our honeys are worth it, aren’t they? 
Happy New Year!
Blessings,
Michele