If you’ve never made stained glass window cookies before, this is the year you need to try. They’re unique, pretty and so very festive! Serve them along with other Christmas recipes such as Christmas sugar cookies, M&M cookies, microwave caramels and Christmas tree brownies. I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous when I put these stained glass cookies into the oven. Would they come out like the pretty pictures you see in magazines, or would they melt everywhere and be a Pinterest fail? Imagine my relief when I pulled the cookies out of the oven and found these beautiful little gems. If I can make picture perfect stained glass window cookies, so can you! This is a great project to do with the kids, my girls had so much fun making these with me.
Stained Glass Cookies Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need unsalted butter, granulated sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, salt, all purpose flour, coarse sparkling sugar and crushed hard candies.
How Do You Make Stained Glass Cookies?
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer, and cream the ingredients together until they are light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time, and beat well after each egg does in. Next add the vanilla and salt. Slowly mix in the flour until you have a dough. Take the dough from the bowl and shape it into a disc. Chill the dough for at least one hour. Preheat the oven and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Roll the dough into a rectangle, and use a cookie cutter to make shapes. Use a smaller cookie cutter of the same shape to cut windows out of each cookie. Place the dough shapes on the cookie sheet. Press the sparkling sugar into the tops of the cookies, then chill the cookies. Remove the cookies from the fridge, then fill them with crushed candy. Bake until the cookies are golden brown and the candy is melted. Cool completely, then serve and enjoy.
Tips For The Perfect Cookies
I used star shaped cookie cutters here because that’s what I had on hand, but you can use any holiday cookie cutters you like, as long as you have them in two different sizes so you can cut out your windows! You’ll want to separate the candies by color, then put them in a resealable bag and crush them with the flat end of a meat mallet, or a rolling pin. The candy should not be ground into a super fine powder, otherwise it might get over caramelized in the oven. You also don’t want huge chunks of candy, think coarse sand or small pebbles. You only need to fill the centers of the cookies about 2/3 of the way full with the candy, otherwise you run the risk of it overflowing onto the cookie. I use a toothpick to gently nudge the candy into each point of the star.
Flavor Variations
While these cookies are delicious as-is, you can customize some of the ingredients to suit your tastes.
Dough: Feel free to add some other flavorings to the dough such as cinnamon, lemon zest, nutmeg, or extracts like almond extract or orange extract. Candy: No Jolly Ranchers on hand? This recipe will work with any hard candy such as Lifesavers, butterscotch candy or cinnamon discs. Sprinkles: Instead of using coarse sugar on the outside of the cookies, you can use colored sugar or non pareil sprinkles for a fun and festive look.
If you’re looking for an impressive treat to bring to a cookie exchange this year, these stained glass cookies can’t be beat!
Stained Glass Cookies Video
