Buzz
While decorating sugar cookies after baking can be a fun holiday tradition, I prefer cookies that come out of the oven already looking beautiful and ready to be enjoyed. Although there’s nothing quite like a simple chocolate chip or magic cookie bar, the festive spirit of December calls for something a bit more special, and stained glass cookies deliver just that.
The key to their stunning appearance lies in a colorful transparent layer of hard candy, but don’t worry—it’s not complicated sugar work. If you can crush hard candies with a mallet, you can easily make these cookies. All you need are some Jolly Ranchers (or similar candies), your favorite sugar cookie dough (mine comes from a tub), a large cookie cutter, and a smaller one to create a decorative hole. After using the smaller cutter to carve out a shape, fill the hole with crushed candy. When baked, the candy melts into a beautiful, colorful window within the cookie.
When it comes to colors, you can fill the cutout spaces with one or more shades. Different colored candies will melt together beautifully, creating a swirled stained glass effect rather than a muddy one.
The process is quite simple, but there are a few key things to remember. First and foremost—make sure to use parchment paper between the cookies and the baking sheet, or else the sugar glass will stick and ruin your masterpiece. Also, don’t be shy about filling up the cookies! A generous mound of crushed candy will melt and settle as the dough rises, helping to avoid messy overflow. (For example, the Christmas tree on the lower left and the star on the lower right were underfilled, which is why their edges appear a bit sunken.) Here’s what you’ll need to make these beauties:
Jolly Rancher candies
Your preferred sugar cookie dough recipe
Flour
1 large cookie cutter
1 or more smaller cookie cutters
Preheat your oven to 400℉. While the oven warms up, unwrap your Jolly Ranchers and sort them by flavor, placing them in a resealable freezer bag. Take a heavy, blunt object and crush the candies into small pieces. Set them aside for later.
Once the oven reaches temperature, roll out your dough to about 1/4 inch thick, then cut out cookies using your larger cutter. With the smaller cutter, create a hole in the center of each cookie. Place the cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, then fill the holes with the crushed candy. Bake for 4-6 minutes, or until the cookie edges are lightly golden and the candy is fully melted. After baking, let the cookies cool for a minute on the sheet, then lift the parchment and place it on the counter to cool completely. Continue until you’ve used up your dough and/or candy.
