These cookies look impressive and fancy and will have everyone “ooh-ing” and “ahh-ing.”

I absolutely love the way these cookies look and everyone always enjoys them whenever I make them, too.

These Stained Glass Cookies are Day 10 of our 12 Days of Cookies

Be sure to check out all of the other days for more goodies!
Day 1 – Fluffernutter Cookies
Day 2 – Toffee Coconut Oatmeal Bars
Day 3 – Double Chocolate M&M Christmas Cookies
Day 4 – Lace Cookies
Day 5 – Whipped Shortbread
Day 6 – Chocolate Spritz Cookies
Day 7 – 3 Ingredient Sugar Free PB Cookies
Day 8 – Wasabi Chocolate Crinkles
Day 9 – Christmas Sprinkle Cookies
Day 10 – You’re on it!
Day 11 – Cream Cheese Meltaways
Day 12 – Peppermint Sugar Cookie Cups

SAVE THIS EASY STAINED GLASS COOKIE RECIPE TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!

Sugar cookies with candy

Here’s the secret: they are super easy to make! 

Stained Glass Window Cookies are just a simple sugar cookie using two cookie cutters, and crushed Jolly Rancher candies. The candies melt to fill the center of the cookie with a jewel toned layer that resembles stained glass.

You can make them into any shape you like and any colors you like. Unlike most holiday sugar cookie recipes, they require no frosting or sprinkles.

I love frosted sugar cookies too but sometimes it’s nice to have one less step (and less mess) on your baking day!

What do I need?

These cookies start with a homemade sugar cookie dough. For the dough, you’ll need these ingredients.

• butter
• sugar 
• egg
• vanilla
• heavy cream
• flour
• salt
• baking powder

To make the stained glass center, you’ll need crushed jolly ranchers. Any color will do. I chose festive red and green for the holidays.

Put candies in plastic zipped bags. Use a mallet to crush them into fine pieces. They don’t need to be totally pulverized, just fine enough to melt quickly in the oven.

How to Make Stained Glass Christmas Cookies

First, you just mix together the sugar cookie dough and roll it out.
Then you’ll need two of the same shape cookie cutters, but different sizes.

Separate the Jolly Rancher candies by color and put them into sandwich bags.
Using a rolling pin or flat heavy mallet, crush the candy.

Use one cookie cutter to cut out the cookie shapes. Then use the smaller cookie cutter of the same shape to cut out the center.

Halfway through the baking time, you pull the sugar cookies out of the oven. Sprinkled crushed up candy into the center of each cookie. Put them back in the oven and let them finish baking as the candy melts.

PRO TIP: Be careful not to get any crushed candy on the actual cookie itself. Keep the cookie part clean and neat for best looking cookies!

Can I use life savers instead?

I’ve seen people online mention making Stained Glass Cookies with Life Savers instead of Jolly Ranchers. So I gave it a shot to find out if the results would be just as good.

My answer will always be a resounding no.

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. Jolly Ranchers melt so much more smoothly than Life Savers. There’s no contest which candies work best in Stained Glass Cookies recipes. Jolly Ranchers will win every time.

These Stained Glass Sugar Cookies were a hit for Thanksgiving along with Caramel Apple Pie Crust Cookies. The kids LOVED them–and so did all the adults!

Sugar Cookies

Since we’re talking about sugar cookies today and especially Christmas cookies, I also don’t want to forget to talk about the other ones I love on this blog.

Classic Peppermint Frosted Sugar Cookies make your kitchen smell like candy cane heaven. These Peppermint Blossom Cookies bring tons of festivity to my Christmas cookie platters every year, too.

Have you made Viennese Crescents yet? Those are easy to make and fancy enough to serve at a more formal Christmas soiree or tea party.

Need a little more cookie inspiration? We’ve got you covered with these tasty sugar cookie recipes!

• Cranberry Ginger Sugar Cookies
• Jelly Roll Sugar Cookies 
• Jam-Filled Sugar Cookies
• Cinnamon Sugar Cookies
• Coconut Macadamia Sugar Cookies
• Strawberry Buttercream Sugar Cookies
• Cream Cheese Cookies
• Jackie’s Vanilla Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

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Turn simple sugar cookies into an eye-catching treat with this Stained Glass Cookies Recipe! 

Print

Stained Glass Cookies

These Stained Glass Cookies are rolled and cut out sugar cookies that are filled with crushed Jolly Rancher candies which melt and create a stained-glass effect.

Course Cookies, Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Christmas Cookies, cookies, Stained Glass Cookies, Sugar Cookies

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Resting time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 24 cookies

Calories 91kcal

Author Lynne Feifer

Equipment

• Mixer
• mixing bowl
• Baking Sheet

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• ⅛ teaspoon salt
• ¼ 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.

Instructions

• 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.

Notes

Makes about 24 cookies depending on your cookie cutter sizes.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 91kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 18mg | Sodium: 16mg | Potassium: 17mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 136IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 6mg | Iron: 1mg

This post was originally published 12/8/2013. It has been updated in format and with new pictures on 12/6/2021.

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 past!

• 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

The post Stained Glass Cookies appeared first on 365 Days of Baking.

The holidays were super busy for us as I’m sure they were for you as well.

I am proud to be partnering with Toyota for this post. We were able to use the 2019 Toyota Sequoia Platinum in exchange while my family was together for the holidays. There has been no compensation and all opinions are 100% my own.

One of the things I was most looking forward to for Christmas was having the whole family in one place for a whole week!
Now that the kids are older and off on their own, it’s more difficult to get everyone together as some of you may know.

Alex, our oldest, now resides in Berlin. She moved there in October after living in Weinstrasse, Germany for a year as an au pair (full-time nanny).
She’ll be an au pair for another family over the next year and is hoping to stay in Germany for as long as she possibly can.

When she arrived back in Europe last week she texted me and said, “it’s good to be back and this feels like home”.
Bittersweet for her momma, but I love seeing my kids happy and if that’s where she’s supposed to be, so be it.
I’ll just have to go visit her every so often.

SAVE THIS FURRY FRIEND FRIDAY –  FAMILY TO YOUR FAVORITE PINTEREST BOARD!

Emma and Cameron, our two younger children are living together in Philadelphia and working. I love how they’re both experiencing all the things that great city has to offer.

I went to visit Emma last March, months before Cameron moved in with her and really enjoyed the history, architecture, museums, and of course, amazing food.
I NEED to go back SOON!

One of the other things I was extremely excited about was seeing how Logan would react to each of them.

Cameron was the first one I picked up from the airport.
When we walked in the door Logan went right up to him, wagging his tail and brushed up on his legs.

When Emma came home, he went right up to her as well. He then plopped on the ground wanting her to give him belly rubs which so immediately did.

Below is later in the week when they were playing on the floor.

He took to Alex as they’d been old friends as well, immediately making her feel welcome.
And it goes without saying that Winne was extremely happy her mother was home, too.

He thoroughly enjoyed going on walks with them and always wanted to be part of the action.

Logan absolutely LOVED being with his family. Kurt and I were so interested to see how he might react to meeting them and how he’d be to have three extra people in the house for a week.

He handled it all like he’d known them forever and absolutely ADORED all of the attention they showed him.
I’m thinking it might be because some of their stuff is still here in the house, and has their scent.

Facetiming and hearing their voices also familiarized him with them as well, I’m sure.

You can follow Logan the Golden Dog account on Instagram where you’ll see almost daily pictures and adventures of our furry friend!

While they were home, we had the use of a 2019 Toyota Sequoia Platinum.
And oh, man did I absolutely LOVE that car!!

So much so that I may have shed a slight tear when we parted ways.
But not as much as when I had to say goodbye to each of the kids.

It was a wonderful car with plenty of room for 5 adults, a 60 lb. puppy, and luggage!
We were driving comfortably all week to the restaurants, stores, and activities we’d planned.

And I’m not gonna lie, I now want this car as my next one.
It was THE most comfortable car I have ever driven and drove like butter.
Ok, what I imagine butter would drive like. haha

I think the rest of the family enjoyed it as much as I did.

You can follow all of Logan’s antics here on my Instagram, too! You’ll see what our Furry Friend Friday pup is up to each day.

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Needless to say, it was so hard saying goodbye to each one of the kids, not knowing when we’d all be together again.
And for a few days following their departures, Logan wandered around the house looking for each of them. It was so sweet.
But I’m already looking forward to how our boy will react when he sees them again.

Did you enjoy reading this week’s tails (haha) about Logan the Golden Dog and his Family? If so, please take a look our past posts!

Furry Friend Friday & Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Furry Friend Friday & Dog Farts

Furry Friend Friday & Dog Friendly Southern Utah

The post Furry Friend Friday – Family appeared first on 365 Days of Baking.