Stained Glass Cookies

I have recently been introduced to Pinterest and love it! I am continually amazed at how creative so many people are. It has definitely inspired me to be more crafty. I have only attempted to make a couple of the crafts, but I am definitely inspired and hopefully will make some more fun things. I also love it for bookmarking recipes I want to make. That is originally what sparked my curiosity of these cookies. I saw them pinned on someones board and thought they were the coolest things. Then when I saw how they made them I just knew I had to try it. On my first attempt I tried to use sprinkles. Let me tell you that this did not work. Sadly the sprinkles didn't melt. Who would have ever thought that sprinkles wouldn't melt? Next I tried Jolly Ranchers and they worked like a charm! These turned out so cute and can be made so festive!

Stained Glass Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened to cool room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest (from about 1 lemon)
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

40 fruit flavored hard candies

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line cookie sheets with silpat or tin foil. I used both, un-greased, and they both worked great.

Place hard candies in a Ziploc bag and crush with a meat tenderizer, rolling pin, or hammer. Don't worry about all the pieces being finely crushed. I had some bigger chunks and they still melted beautifully.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars for 3-4 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla extract, almond extract and lemon zest; mix. Add two cups flour, baking powder and salt. Mix. Add remaining flour and mix just until flour is incorporated and the dough is smooth and soft.

The dough can be wrapped in plastic wrap and kept in the refrigerator for up to a week or it can be rolled out right away. Dust a counter with powdered sugar or flour and roll the dough to desired thickness (I prefer my cookies on the thick side so I roll my dough out to about 1/4-inch, maybe even slightly thicker than that). Cut the dough into shapes. Cut out the center of your cookies that you want the "stained glass" appearance.  Place the cookies on a lined or lightly greased baking sheet. Fill center area with the crushed hard candies. I used about 1/2-1 tbs of the crushed candies in each of my cookie centers. Bake for 7-8 minutes. The cookies won’t appear browned on top (or on bottom) when they are done baking so don’t let them over bake! The hard candies will melt and bubble a little bit. Just make sure you candy is all melted. Let cool for a few minutes on the baking tray. Once candy center has cooled and is solid remove from baking sheet and place on wire cooling rack. You can eat as is or decorate with extra frosting as desired.


Recipe Source: Inspiration for stained glass cookies from here. The actual sugar cookie recipe I got from Mel's Kitchen Cafe