These Stained Glass Cookies are rolled sugar cookies cut out and filled with crushed Jolly Rancher candies which melt and create a stained-glass effect.
Or is it the other way around? Anywho…We’re having a 12 Days of Cookies Party over on the 365 Days of Baking Facebook page and LOTS of people have been sharing LOTS of cookies!!
If you haven’t been over to check them out, please do so and say hello to some new Facebook pages and tell them how much you like their cookies! I’ve also been pinning them. You can follow me on Pinterest and check out my boards. I have a board for each day of cookies.
Today I give you a recipe that I thought was going to be a bit complicated but turned out to be rather easy.
YAY for easy! It’s just a simple sugar cookie using two cut-outs, and crushed Jolly Rancher candies (DO NOT use LifeSavers – they are BLECCHY with a capital B in both taste and melting quality).
I took the sugar cookie recipe from my Fannie Farmer Cookbook Thirteenth Edition, p. 617; author, Marion Cunningham; publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.; ISBN 0-394-56788-9.
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| After being in the oven for 5 minutes. |
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- 1/4 pound of butter 1 stick, room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 tablespoon cream
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- Jolly Rancher Candy 10-15 of each, crushed - I put them in two plastic bags and crushed them with a mallet and you can use any color you prefer.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees, F.
- Prepare two baking sheet by lining them with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter, then gradually add the sugar, beating until light.
- Add the egg, vanilla and cream. Beat throughly.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder.
- Add to the butter/sugar mixture and blend well.
- Prepare a clean flat surface by covering it with flour, enough so that the dough will not stick to the surface.
- Using a floured rolling pin, roll dough to 1/4 -inch thick.
- Using the larger cookie cutter, cut shapes into the dough.
- Transfer the cut-outs to prepared cookie sheets.
- Center the smaller cookie cutter in to the larger cut-out and gently remove.
- Bake cookies for 5 minutes, until slightly set.
- Remove tray from oven and with a small spoon or small utensil sprinkle crushed Jolly Rancher candy into the center of each cookie.
- Return tray to oven and bake for 5-7 minutes more, until candy has melted and cookies are golden.
- Allow to cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes before setting on wire rack to cool completely.
Ok, so with the Lifesavers, yeah, no. They tasted horrible and melted even worse. See?
In the picture ABOVE, Lifesavers are on the left, Jolly Ranchers on the right. Even though it’s a blurry picture, you can still see the difference. That pink spot in the Jolly Rancher cookie is because I combined the watermelon and cherry candies.
Also, I only baked one tray at a time, as it was a bit time consuming filling the centers and my back started to hurt. haha When sprinkling the candy into the center, you want to get as little as possible on the cookie itself because it doesn’t “go away” as I somehow thought it might. (See the above picture.)
Where the heck did I think it would disappear to anyway? So, some were as close to perfect as I could get while others, you could tell Miss Lynne was getting tired from filling cookies with crushed candy.
I rate everything I make on a scale of 1-4 and these Stained Glass Cookies earned 4 rolling pins! They were easy, fun and tasty to eat. I made them for Thanksgiving and the kids LOVED them (so did the adults)!! They’ll be a hit on that cookie tray or dessert table.
If you like these cookies, you might like…
Checkerboard Cookies
Chocolate Covered Cherry Thumbprints
Laura Bush’s Cowboy Cookies
Dough was too soft couldn’t roll or cut
I haven’t made these yet, but is it possible to place the small cutter back into the middle and then pour the candy into that, then remove the cutter? Would that possibly work to avoid splatter on the cookies??
Elaine,
I think that’s a great idea and worth a shot. Please let me know how it goes!
Hi,
I just did this technique with sunglasses-shaped cookies for school-year-end. They turned out great with the Jolly Rancher candies. I found that one Lifesavers candy wasn’t enough to fill as the lens and they did bubble up like you’ve shown. I also didn’t crunch up the candy first. I just put the candy in the hole as is. They filled the lens quite nicely. You’ll find that they melt quite quickly and then they start to bubble. However, when you take the cookies out, you can dissipate the bubbles by stirring the liquid candy to get rid of them. Then let the candy settle and the candy will cool smooth like the end result you’ll be expecting.
Arjay, that’s so wonderful to hear. Thanks so much for the tip – I never would have thought of that! And what a great treat to end the school year. Love it!
Hi I just made these and they look very pretty. Heres the problem, I find it difficult to get it off they trays. They stuck to paper. Any ideas to get them off smoothly? Thanks.
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Tricia, I apologize for my late response. I would use parchment and spray that with some cooking spray to help as well.
“Lifesavers are on the right, Jolly Ranchers on the left. Even though it’s a blurry picture, you can still see the difference.”
You have the left and right mixed up. Fix the text to match the picture.