Stained Glass Christmas Cookies
These pretty stained glass Christmas cookies are a simple cutout butter cookie that gets filled with crushed hard candies. The candies melt in the oven, then set into a window that looks just like colorful stained glass!
Servings: 24 cookies
Calories: 129kcal
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 3/4 cup superfine sugar caster sugar
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plain flour, sifted
- 20 hard candies different colored, unwrapped and crushed (see notes)
- 3 Tbsp coarse sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F/165°C, conventional or convection setting. Line a couple of cookie sheets or baking trays with silicon baking mats or silicon paper and set aside.
- Put the butter, sugar and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until light and creamy looking. The time this takes will vary depending on how soft your butter is to begin with, and how strong your mixer is.1 cup unsalted butter, 3/4 cup superfine sugar, ½ teaspoon fine salt
- While the butter and sugar are creaming, sieve the all-purpose/plain flour into a bowl.2 cups all-purpose flour
- Add the flour to the butter mixture in 2-3 batches, mixing on low speed just to combine each time. When all the flour has been added and the dough just comes together, turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until it’s smooth. Don’t go overboard, you just want a cohesive mass that’s all the same color and consistency.2 cups all-purpose flour
- Roll portions of dough out between two sheets of parchment paper to your desired thickness (I like larger shapes to be about 3/8"/1cm thick and smaller shapes 1/2"/6mm thick). Remove the top sheet of parchment and cut out larger shapes with a small cutout in the center of each one. If you're finding the dough is too soft to cut clean shapes, refrigerate it for 15 minutes before cutting.
- Place the cut out shapes on lined trays, leaving ½”/1½ cm between each cookie. Use a teaspoon to transfer a small amount of crushed hard candy into the center cutout of each cookie. You need enough for it to fill the space, but don't pile it too high or it'll run and leak outside the edges of the cutout during baking. I prefer sticking with one color for each cutout; you can make multicolored stained glass but it tends to run and blend more than I like. Optional; brush a little beaten egg white or water on the outer border of the cookies and sprinkle with coarse sugar crystals.3 Tbsp coarse sugar, 20 hard candies
- Bake the stained glass cookies until firm to the touch and just beginning to color at the edges. This can take anywhere from 15-25 minutes, depending on their size.
- Cool the cookies on the baking trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. When completely cool, store in an airtight container.
Notes
- Which hard candies to use: I used Fox's Glacier Fruits in the pictured cookies; they're available in Australia and the UK. Any clear (not cloudy) colored hard candy should work. In the USA I'd recommend something like Jolly Ranchers. You can even use the little flat, colored lollipops (I think of them as 'doctor's lollipops', because they're ubiquitous in every doctors surgery I've ever taken my kids to!).
- Crushing the hard candies: The easiest and neatest way to crush the candy is to put a few same-colored, unwrapped candies in a ziploc sandwich bag and squeeze out excess air before sealing the bag. Bash the bag with a rolling pin to completely crush the candy into sugar-crystal-sized pieces. Repeat with the other colors, and use the candy soon after crushing so it doesn't get sticky and clump together.
- The number of cookies this recipe makes will vary depending on the size and shapes of cutters you choose.
- These cookies will keep for up to a week, sealed in an airtight container at room temperature. I've had them last at least a couple of weeks if they're individually packaged into little clear plastic bags and sealed well. I do not freeze them because I find the stained glass centers can become soft, and they 'bleed' into the cookie. Humidity is the enemy of stained glass cookies, so if you live somewhere humid be extra vigilant about sealing them after baking!
Nutrition
Calories: 129kcal | Carbohydrates: 14g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 50mg | Potassium: 15mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 236IU | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg
