Stained Glass Window Cookies

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These Stained Glass Window Cookies are one of the prettiest Christmas treats you can ever make. They look fancy, and beautiful with their colorful candy centers, but with this recipe they're actually delicious to eat too, with a simple sugar cookie base.

Prep Time20

Cook Time10

Chilling Time1 30

Total Time30

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Stained Glass Window Cookies, sugar cookies

Servings: cookies

Calories: 120kcal

Ingredients

1 cup Unsalted Butter
1 cup Granulated Sugar
2 large Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
20 Hard Candies (like Jolly Ranchers)

Instructions

Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl (the bowl of a stand mixer), or with a hand mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. 1 cup Unsalted Butter, 1 cup Granulated Sugar
Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until combined, scraping the edges and side of the bowl as needed. 2 large Eggs, 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Add in the flour, and salt, and mix until you have a nice soft cookie dough. 3 cups All Purpose Flour, 1/2 tsp Salt
Lay out a piece of parchment paper and roll the cookie dough out on it about 1/4 inch. Transfer it to the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
Cut dough into shapes. Cut out the center of each cookie with a smaller cookie cutter.
Place cookies about 1 inch apart, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone liner. Re roll the scraps of dough to get as many cookies as you can.
Place the cookie sheet into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
While the dough is cooking, separate the candies by color and put them into ziplock bags. Crush the candies with a rolling pin or meat mallet, into pebble sized pieces. 20 Hard Candies
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Fill the center of the cookies with some of the crushed candy, filling them about 3/4 of the way full. Do not over fill them or the candy will bubble over.
Bake the cookies until the candy in the center is melted, and the cookies are very lightly golden browned on the edges. This will take 8 to 12 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool for 15 minutes on the cookie sheet, or until the candy has reset in the middle. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

Don't Skip Chilling: The Cookie dough needs to chill to make sure the cookies hold their shapes.
Make Ornaments: Use a skewer to poke a hole in the cookie dough when you're cutting out the shapes to turn them into ornaments you can hang on your tree.
Clean Cookies: Don't get any candy pieces on the sugar cookie dough or it will melt into the cookies, and give them a messy look.
Bubbles: If you have any bubbles that form in the candy portion while the cookies bake, gently pop them with the toothpick when the candy is still hot.

Nutrition