Stained Glass Window Biscuits Recipes

STAINED GLASS WINDOW COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in vanilla and eggs.
• In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; add to egg mixture alternately with milk.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide strips and, on a well-buttered baking sheet, form into window frames.
• Keeping the colors separate, place candy in plastic bags and crush with a meat mallet. Place crushed candies inside window frames.
• Bake for six minutes, or until candy is just melted. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, until candy is hard. Carefully lift cookies off baking sheet with spatula.

STAINED GLASS CHRISTMAS BISCUITS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar with a wooden spoon until soft and combined. Beat in the vanilla, then stir in the flour until the mixture comes together. Shape dough into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30min.
• Meanwhile, separate sweets into their different colours and put each colour into a plastic food bag. Bash sweets in the bags with a rolling pin to break into small pieces.
• Line two large baking sheets with baking parchment. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 3mm (1/8in) thick and stamp out 10cm (4in) stars, or other Christmas shapes. Arrange stars on prepared baking sheets. Use a 5cm (2in) star cutter, or similar, to stamp out the centre of each larger star. Reroll trimmings to make more biscuits.
• Spoon 1/2tsp crushed sweets into the middle of each biscuit. If you plan to hang the biscuits up, use a skewer to make a hole at the top of each. Chill for 15min.
• Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan) mark 4. Bake biscuits for 12-15min until lightly golden and sweets have melted. Remove from oven and use a skewer to reopen holes if they've closed. Cool completely on sheets.
• To hang, thread a thin ribbon or twine through holes and knot into a loop.

STAINED GLASS WINDOW BISCUITS

Steps:

• Measure out the butter, sugar and vanilla extract and pop them in a large mixing bowl or freestanding mixer. Cream them together until the mixture is light and fluffy.
• Crack the egg in a small bowl and add to your mixture. Mix everything together. If you need to, use a spatula to scrape unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl.
• Measure the flour, salt, cream of tartar and add to the butter/sugar mixture. Mix everything together so it comes together into a ball of soft dough.
• Dust your work surface with a little flour and roll out your dough until it is about ½ a cm thick.
• Use festive cutters to cut shapes out and place them on your baking trays. If you have two cutters of the same shape but in different sizes, these work well for making your window. If you don't, just use a knife to cut a hole in the middle of your biscuit.
• Crush the boiled sweets (while still in the wrapper) with the end of a rolling pin. Sprinkle some of the crushed sweets into the middle of your biscuits.
• Pop the cookies in the oven for around 10 minutes. They're ready when the edges are starting to turn a little golden and the window sweets have melted. As soon as you remove them from the oven use a straw or something similar to poke a hole at the top of each biscuit if you want to hang them up.
• Leave them to cool until the windows have hardened. Place them on a wire rack to cool completely. If you're planning to hand them up, thread a ribbon or thread through the hole.