Stained Glass Window Cookies

I have regularly seen many sun catcher craft linkys on our weekly Tuesday Tutorials. So when I saw the recipe for stained glass window cookies (Christmas Cookies book from Parragon), I couldn’t wait to bake them!

The stained glass, made by boiled sweets, looks absolutely gorgeous but crushing boiled sweets is not very easy at all! I tried using a mallet, rolling pin and a knife! Also after baking the crushed sweets, it seems to reduce to nothing that I had to keep adding more sweets into the holes of the cookies.

These cookies are quite sweet and taste lovely. If you prefer less sweet, do reduce the amount of caster sugar.

Ingredients:

• 350g plain flour, sifted plus extra for dusting
• 175g caster sugar
• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 4 tablespoon golden syrup
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 bag of coloured boiled sweets, crushed

Method:

1. Mix plain flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl, add the butter and rub it in until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar.
2. Place the egg, vanilla extract and golden syrup in a separate bowl and whisk together.
3. Mix both mixtures together to form a smooth dough. Place it in a ziplock bag and chill in the fridge for 30 – 60 minutes.
4. Roll the chilled dough onto a floured work surface and use a variety of floured cookie cutters. Fill the holes with the chopped sweets. Use a straw to make a hole through the top of each cookie large enough to thread ribbon through.
5. Bake in the preheated oven at 160°C for 10 – 12 minutes. Leave to cool on the baking sheets until the centres have hardened. Check that the holes are still there, if not, push a straw through again. When cooled, thread a length of ribbon through the hole and knot. Add icing onto the cookies to decorate. Or add melted boiled sweets onto the cookies themselves.

These cookies not only look beautiful but are also very delicious!