Stained glass cookies start as a buttery sugar cookie with a fruity and chewy gummy center you can see right through. These cookies will quickly become your next holiday favorite!
Equipment
Cookie sheets
parchment paper
Large Mixing Bowl
Electric mixer or stand mixer (optional)
2 small bowls
Medium mixing bowl
Fork or whisk
Rolling pin
3-inch round cookie cutter
1 ½- to 2-inch cookie cutters in holiday shapes
Small sharp knife
Ingredients
¾cup buttercold, unsalted
¾cupwhite sugar
2eggs one whole egg and one egg yolk needed
½teaspoonvanilla
½teaspoonsalt
2 ¼cupsflourall purpose
8ouncesgummy bearsgummy worms work too!
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Lay parchment paper on your cookie sheets and clean off a nice big area of counter space to roll out the cookie dough.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar together in a mashing motion by hand or for 2 to 3 minutes with an electric mixer on low-medium.
Separate an egg and drop the whites in one bowl and the yolk in a second bowl. In the bowl with the yolk, crack and add a second full egg and vanilla, then beat with a fork or whisk. Add the egg mixture to your sugar and butter and mix until well blended.
To your wet mixture add the flour and scatter the salt around the bowl. Mix well for a few minutes with a spatula or a stand mixer on low until a dough forms. (Don’t try mixing this part of the dough with a hand mixer—the dough is very thick and may break your mixer!)
Flour the counter and roll out your dough to a thickness of about ⅜ of an inch. Use a 3-inch cookie cutter and cut circles out of your dough.
In the center of each circle, use a small holiday cookie cutter that is 1 ½ to 2 inches and cut the center out of each cookie. Take a small piece of dough about the size of a large bean and roll it into a ball, then flatten it and press it at the top of your circle for the Christmas tree ornament.
Reroll any extra dough to cut more cookies and place on the prepared baking sheets. Bake the cookies in the oven for 9 to 11 minutes until they are almost done but still have a light color.
Slice your gummy candies into the smallest pieces you can into pieces just a little bigger than a large sprinkle. While the cookies are still hot on the pan, sprinkle the gummy bits into the center of the cookies. Put the cookies back in the oven for 1 to 2 minutes to melt the gummies.
Use a toothpick to pull the gummy candy to fill in any holes while the cookies are still warm. Once the pan has cooled for a few minutes, put the cookie sheet in the fridge for about 5 minutes to fully set the gummies.
Notes
When you are rolling the cookie dough, if you put chopsticks next to the dough on either side then roll it can help you to roll more evenly. You want to roll the dough just a little thicker than the chopsticks.One whole egg and one egg yolk are needed for the cookie dough. The remaining egg white can be discarded or used for an additional recipe.If you don’t have a tiny cookie cutter, you can also use an icing decorating tip to cut polka dots from your ornaments. Making the cookies like this will result in fewer cookies, but they are still delicious—and fun!You can use one color gummy in the center of each cookie, or mix the colors for a multi-color look that's pretty too!