These Stained Glass Cookies are rolled sugar cookies cut out and filled with crushed Jolly Rancher candies which melt to create a stained-glass effect. There are a Christmas cookie that kids both young and old will love.
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!!
Sugar Cookies
I’ve seen so many amazing looking cookie recipes over there so far! 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.
Since we’re talking about sugar cookies today and Christmas cookies, more specifically I also don’t want to forget to talk about the ones I love on this blog, like classic Peppermint Frosted Sugar Cookies.
Peppermint Blossom Cookies bring tons of festivity to my Christmas cookie platters every year. too! Double Chocolate Peppermint Kisses are another minty holiday treat to try.
Have you made Viennese Crescents yet? If not, those need to be on your baking list this year, too.
Stained Glass Cookies
Today I give you a recipe that I thought was going to be a bit complicated but turned out to be rather easy. Stained Glass Sugar Cookies look super impressive and fancy and will have everyone “ooh-ing” and “ahh-ing.”
YAY for fancy-looking but easy!
Stained Glass Cookies are just a simple sugar cookie using two cut-outs, and crushed Jolly Rancher candies. I’d seen people online using both melted jolly ranchers and melted life savers to make the “stained glass” part of the cookie.
I tried both and VASTLY preferred how the jolly rancher ones looked and tasted.
Read on to see the complete results of both versions. In summary, though, the LifeSaver cookies turned out BLECCHY with a capital B in both taste and melting quality.
The jolly rancher stained glass cookies, though? Gorgeous!
First, you just mix together a sugar cookie dough and roll it out. I used two different cut-out shapes: stars and Christmas trees!  |
Halfway through the baking time, you pull the sugar cookies out of the oven. I sprinkled crushed up candy (jolly ranchers and lifesavers) into the center of each cookie. The candy melts as the cookies finish baking.
Stained Glass Sugar Cookies
So about the Lifesavers: yeah, no. They tasted horrible and melted even worse. See the difference?
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 stained glass cookies 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 Stained Glass Sugar Cookies for Thanksgiving along with Caramel Apple Pie Crust Cookies. The kids LOVED them–and so did all the adults!
They’ll be a hit on that cookie tray or dessert table.
Next time, I’ll definitely use only jolly ranchers. I might bake up a batch of these Candy Cane Snowball Cookies by Erin at Well Plated to serve them, with too.
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Stained Glass Cookies Recipe
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- Assorted Jolly Rancher Hard Candies 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.
Makes about 24 cookies depending on your cookie cutter sizes.
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.
Christmas Cookies
Check out more recipes from the 12 Days of Cookies!
- Chocolate Chip Caramel Peanut Butter Pretzel Cookies
- Pumpkin Spice White Chocolate Cookies
- Cranberry Ginger Sugar Cookies
- Salted Caramel Thumbprints
- Greek Honey-Walnut Cookies
- Peanut Butter Reindeer Cookies
- Mexican Wedding Cookies
Even MORE cookie recipes. . .
I can’t ever have enough cookies, can you?
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.
.
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.
When you say cream , what kind of cream are you talking about ?
Jolene,
I used heavy cream in this recipe and have made note of that in the ingredients.
Thank you!