Candy Stripe Cookie Sticks

Cookies to impress your holiday guest with! From Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies magazine

• Ready In: 38 mins
• Yields: 30 cookies

Ingredients

• 8  large  egg whites
• 2  cups white sugar
• 2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1  pinch coarse salt
• 10  tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled (1 1/4 sticks)
• 1⁄2 cup heavy cream, plus
• 2  tablespoons heavy cream
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract
•  red food coloring, gel-paste type

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Put egg whites and sugar in a bowl, and mix with an electric mixer or egg beater until foamy. Slow speed, and add the flour and salt. Mix until it's just combined. Add the butter, cream, and vanilla and beat until combined.
3. Put one cup of the batter in a small bowl. Into the one cup batter add red food colouring until the desired colour had been reached. Put this tinted batter in a pastry bag, fitted with a small plain round tip. Secure the end of the pastry bag with a rubber band and set it aside.
4. Cut a stencil out off stiff cardboard with 3-by-6-inch rectangle in it. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking mat, and place the stencil down. Spoon heaping tablespoons of the batter into the stencil one at a time, spreading each out each spoonful with a spatula, until the shape is filled. Move the stencil over and make another rectangle in the same manner.
5. Pipe diagonal stripes with the tinted batter onto each rectangle, in a manner similar to a candy cane. Bake until a pale gold, about 6-8 minutes.
6. Immediately loosen the edged of the cookie with a spatula, and flip the cookie over, so that the stripes will be on the outside when rolled. Starting from one of the long sides, roll the cookie into a stick. Place with the seam side down on a clean work surface to let it cool. Repeat with the second cookie quickly.
7. Continue, making two or three cookies at a time as you baking sheet allows. Store between layers of parchment or wax paper in an airtight container for up to one week, or freeze.