It's holiday baking time! One of my favorite, but most frantic times of the year. I think I enjoy the cookbook perusing, planning, ingredient buying, and envisioning huge, beautiful platters of cookies, much more than I enjoy the reality of all of the hard work, shaping, forming, slicing, and baking. But, oh the wonderful aromas, personal satisfaction, and of course, soaking up all of those accolades, not to mention gobbling tasty cookies! I suppose it really does make all of the work worthwhile.
One thing I have learned over the years is to tackle the most difficult or time-consuming cookies first. As the holiday season comes barreling towards us at breakneck speed, it often becomes wise to opt for the simple rather than complex when our backs are against the wall, so if I plan on doing any type of special cookie, I make them first.
These Stained Glass Ornament Cookies are both delicious and attractive. I used my own gingerbread cookie recipe and a set of ornament cookie cutters that I bought from Williams-Sonoma. (If you don't have a favorite gingerbread cookie recipe, you can find mine here.) I was intrigued by the cutters and having never made a stained glass window cookie thought they might aid in my endeavor. Actually, you can really do this on your own with any type of large cutter and any type of small one. Roll out chilled dough to about 3/8", cut with the larger cutter, cut out little "windows" with the smaller cutter, and fill each window with crushed hard candies. I used Jolly Ranchers because I liked the jewel-tone colors. It took a bit of practice to get the amount right, and I have no idea how to guide you here except to encourage you to experiment. If you use too little, the windows will have holes in them, use too much and the melted candies run over. To avoid a potential mess, be sure to employ the use of parchment paper when you bake these.
 |
| Ready for the oven. Crushed Jolly Rancher candies seemed to give the biggest assortment of colors to fill in the little windows on the cookies. |
 |
| Out of the oven, my crushed candies cooperated nicely leaving me with wonderful little jewel-toned windows in the ornament cookies. Now to decorate and hang on the tree. |
 |
| Considering that I am really not a cookie decorator, I'm pretty pleased with the way they turned out. They are much prettier than they photograph. When the little tree lights shine through the "stained glass" section of the cookie, it positively glows! |
This post is linked to:
