When it comes to Christmas, I like to kick off the festive season in full swing and bake little Christmas goodies for the people I love the most, and usually, my neighbours too. There's nothing more touching than receiving a bag of freshly baked treats - it's more personal, it shows that you've made a lot more effort and who doesn't love a sweet treat during Christmas? Sometimes it's also a great way of showing people that you love them or you are grateful for their support and help during the year, even if you're a bit tight on pennies - with the exception of candy canes, you will have all of these ingredients (or different substitutes) already in your store cupboard and they are cheap to replace if you need to. Ingredients like candy canes are also in most supermarkets throughout the season anyway and tend to be reduced from the middle of December, so there's no need to worry. No matter how many times I make this recipe I always seem to make more than I expected too, as sometimes I change the size of the cookie balls when I'm making them too, so they are literally the gift that just keeps giving.

Great for Many

I've made these cookies plant-based, and I use gluten-free flour so they are also great for Coeliacs too (just make sure that you check the oats and other ingredients for trace amounts). Because these cookies also egg-free, the dough is great for trying out before hand!!! But as I always say, you can use the milk, flour, any ingredients that work for you. It's just a great extra that these cookies can be vegan if you want them to be. The one tip I would give to you though is to make sure you choose a good dark chocolate, because the flavour of this combined with the peppermint candy canes is always better when the chocolate is good quality. I love to use Lidl's J.D. Gross 70% chocolate as it is my favourite one, but again, it's completely up to you.