Stained Glass Christmas Cookies Food

STAINED GLASS COOKIES WITH JOLLY RANCHERS

Steps:

• Put brown sugar and butter into a large bowl. Mix well with paddle attachment of stand mixer, or with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is smooth.
• Break the egg into to a small bowl and whisk well with a fork. Mix the beaten egg into the butter and sugar in the bowl, a little at a time.
• Mix flour with baking powder, then stir in cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg.
• Sift the dry ingredients through a fine mesh strainer into the wet ingredients.
• Add the milk then mix everything together well, using a wooden spoon by hand or the paddle attachment of the stand mixer.
• Squeeze the dough into 2 balls.
• Place each ball of dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper and roll out 1/4 inch thick.
• Keep sheets of dough between parchment and place in the fridge on a baking sheet or cutting board. Chill 15 minutes.
• Use a larger cookie cutter to cut out your cookies. Remove scraps of dough from around the cookies and place cookies on parchment lined baking sheet.
• Then use smaller cookie cutter to cut out the center of the cookies. Use a toothpick to help remove the center if needed.
• If you want your cookies to be ornaments, make a hole in each cookie by pressing a drinking straw or the point of a chopstick through the dough where you want to hang it. Make sure there is a thick enough area of dough to not break.
• Divide candy by color into resealable baggies. Squeeze air out, close baggies, and hit with a meat mallet, rolling pin, or back of a metal measuring cup to crush candies.
• Carefully spoon crushed candies into the cut out in the cookies. Try using complimentary colors if mixing (like half blue and half green).
• Place baking sheet in fridge for 10 minutes while you preheat oven to 350°F.
• Squeeze the scraps of dough into a ball. Roll out the dough again between parchment paper and chill.
• Take sheet of prepped cookies from the fridge and put the cookie sheet on the middle rack of the oven.
• Bake the cookies at 350°F for 10-12 minutes, until candy is melted and cookie edges are just turning golden.
• Take the cookies out of the oven nd leave on the baking sheets until they have cooled completely, then remove carefully.
• You can now eat the cookies, or make them into ornaments by stringing a ribbon through each hole.

STAINED-GLASS SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat to combine. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat to combine. Form dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between floured parchment paper to 1/8-inch thickness. Stack dough in parchment on a baking sheet; refrigerate until firm, 30 minutes. With a 2 1/2-inch Christmas-ball-shaped cutter, cut out dough (reroll scraps, if desired). Place cookies, 1 inch apart, on two parchment-lined baking sheets. With a 1-inch star cutter, cut out dough in center of each cookie. Bake until cookies are pale but set, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Remove sheets from oven; fill cutouts with crushed candy. Bake until cookies begin to brown at edges and candy is melted, 3 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

STAINED GLASS COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the sugar and butter until smooth. Add the egg and the vanilla extract. Mix in the flour. Remove the dough from the mixer and press into a rectangular shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Remove from the refrigerator and cut dough into 1/3. Roll out dough, 1 piece at a time to a 3/16-inch thickness. Cut out as many large stars as possible. Repeat with all of the dough. Cut a small triangle out of each the arms on each star.
• Place the hard candy, by color, into small plastic bags. Place a towel over the bags and crush the candy with a meat mallet. Place all of the cookies on parchment lined sheet pans. In each of the triangle holes, fill with different colors of crushed hard candy. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown, and the candy has melted.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the sugar and butter until smooth. Add the egg and the vanilla extract. Mix in the flour. Remove the dough from the mixer and press into a rectangular shape. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Remove from the refrigerator and cut dough into 1/3. Roll out dough, 1 piece at a time to a 3/16-inch thickness. Cut out as many large stars as possible. Repeat with all of the dough. Cut a small triangle out of each the arms on each star.
• Place the hard candy, by color, into small plastic bags. Place a towel over the bags and crush the candy with a meat mallet. Place all of the cookies on parchment lined sheet pans. In each of the triangle holes, fill with different colors of crushed hard candy. Bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown, and the candy has melted.

STAINED GLASS COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream the butter and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs 1 at a time, mixing after each addition until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and then slowly mix in the flour until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Remove the dough, press into a flat rectangle, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to overnight.
• Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
• Cut the dough into thirds, wrap 1 piece back in the plastic wrap and return it to the refrigerator. Dust your work surface and the remaining 2 pieces of dough well with flour and roll out each to 3/16 inch with a rolling pin, moving the dough and dusting the top and bottom with additional flour if it becomes sticky. Cut out as many large stars as possible with a 4-inch star cookie cutter and place on the prepared baking sheets. Gather the scraps and reroll once to cut out more cookies. You should have a total of 12 stars. Cut a small star out of the middle of each large star with a 2-inch star cookie cutter and reserve for another use. (You can chill and bake the small stars separately or freeze for later.) Refrigerate the baking sheets until the dough is firm, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, separate the candy by color and place each color in a separate resealable plastic bag. Place a kitchen towel over the bags and crush the candy into small pieces using a rolling pin or meat mallet; do not pulverize. Fill the cut-out areas of the cookies two-thirds full with the crushed candy.
• Bake the cookies, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through, until light golden brown and the candy has melted, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Repeat the rolling, cutting, filling and baking process with the remaining piece of dough.

CHRISTMAS STAINED GLASS COOKIE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• The quickest and easiest way to make the dough is in a food processor . Put the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and butter in the bowl of the processor. Use the pulse setting and mix until the mixture becomes coarse and sand-like.
• In a separate bowl, lightly mix the cream, whole egg, yolk, and vanilla seeds or extract together.
• Turn the processor to a slow speed and add the egg mix to the dry ingredients. Do not over-mix; stop as soon as the mixture comes together into a dough.
• Empty the dough onto a lightly-floured work surface or board, and gently squeeze to bring the dough together into a ball.
• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and pop into the fridge for at least 30 minutes to rest, or leave up to 24 hours if making the dough in advance.
• When you're ready to make the cookies, remove the dough from the fridge and allow 15 minutes for the dough to reach room temperature. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 325 F/160 C/Gas 4. Flour a work surface and roll out the dough to 1/2-centimeter thickness.
• Use your favorite Christmas cookie cutter and cut as many cookies out as possible. For these, you will want larger shapes as you will be cutting the center of each away.
• Lay the cookies onto a baking sheet lined with parchment, then, either using a smaller same-shaped cutter or freehand, cut the center away, making sure you leave at least 1/2-inch/1 centimeter margin.
• Using a heavy rolling pin , crush each color of the hard candies into fine crystals, but not dust.
• Sprinkle the crystals into the center of the cookie.
• Bake in oven for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden and the sweet crystals have melted.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the tray for 15 minutes. Using a cocktail stick, push a hole into wherever you want the ribbon to go.
• Then lift carefully onto a cooling rack and leave to cool. Thread your Christmas cookies with ribbon and hang from your tree, or store in an airtight tin.

GINGERBREAD STAINED GLASS BISCUITS

Steps:

• Heat the sugar, golden syrup and butter in a pan until melted. Mix the ginger and flour in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the melted mixture and stir - it will fizz a little - then pour into the flour mixture with the egg. Stir to combine. The mix will be soft but will firm up as it cools.
• Scoop the mixture into a box or fridge bag and chill for at least 1 hr until firm enough to roll out. The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to a week or frozen for three months.
• Heat oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut in half. Briefly knead the first piece, then roll it on a lightly floured surface to 2mm thick. Cut into shapes with snowflake or star cutters about 12cm across, then transfer to lined baking sheets, leaving a little room for them to spread. Cut a window out of each biscuit using another cutter about about 6cm across, then add a sweet to the centre.
• If the sweets are large, chop them up first - you'll have to judge by the size of the hole. (Don't be tempted to add too much or it will spill over the edge.) If you plan to hang the biscuits, make a small hole in the top of each one using the end of a piping nozzle (the hole will close up a little so make sure it's big enough). Repeat with remaining dough.
• Bake in batches for 5-6 mins or until they darken slightly and the sweets have melted. If the holes have closed up, remake them while the biscuits are warm. Leave to cool and harden up completely before moving them. Don't forget to bake the parts you've cut out, too! You can decorate the biscuits further by using white piped icing, if you like.

STAINED-GLASS CHRISTMAS TREE COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Place each color candy in separate resealable freezer plastic bag; seal bag. With rolling pin, coarsely crush candy; set aside.
• In large bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in corn syrup, vanilla and lemon extract. On low speed, gradually beat in flour, baking powder and salt.
• Divide dough in half. On floured cloth-covered work surface, roll each half to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut dough with 3 inch christmas tree-shaped cookie cutter. Cut out and remove several smaller dough shapes from each cookie. If desired, reroll small cutouts with remaining dough. Fill each hole in tree shapes with about 1/2 teaspoons crushed candy.
• Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown and candy is melted. Place cookie sheets on cooling racks; cool cookies 8 minutes. With back of metal pancake turner, gently lift warm cookies from foil; place on cooling racks. Cool completely, about 15 minutes, before storing in loosely covered containers.