Stained-Glass Cookies

These beautiful, festive cookies seem to be the hit thing this year. Practically all of my food magazines include a recipe for these holiday treats. Upon further Christmas cookie investigation I found many more recipes for these cookies. I wanted to make cookies for my history class on the last day so I thought I would try these out and see if they were as difficult to make as they looked. Well they are not. As long as you can make a sugar cookie and crush up some Jolly Ranchers then you are ready to go. Just make sure you add a lot of crushed candy to the center. I had a few that didn't get filled all they way. But they still looked pretty cool. These are impressive looking cookies that everyone will love. You may even want to put a hole in the top so you can hang these ornament shaped cookies on the tree for a holiday party.

Basic Sugar Cookie Dough
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living Annual Recipes 2004

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour

1) Cream butter and sugar together, then add eggs, vanilla, and salt. Add flour mixture a cup at a time until incorporated
2) Divide dough into disks and wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for at least 2 hours
3) Save until ready to use

Stained-Glass Cookies
Adapted from Everyday Food, December 2011

Basic sugar cookie dough, ready to use
Jolly Ranchers, separated into colors

1) Place Jolly Ranchers in a plastic bag (all blue in one bag, red in another, etc.)
2) With a rolling pin, crush the candies until finely ground

3) Set aside in bowls

4) Roll out cookie dough then cut into ornament shapes, then with small cookie cutter, punch out hole in center of ornaments

5) Bake cookies in 350 F oven until set, about 8-10 minutes, then remove from oven and fill the center with crushed candies

6) Return to oven and cook until candy is melted and cookies are ready, about 3 minutes
7) Remove from oven and let cool and enjoy!