Stained Glass Sugar Cookies

By Anne545

Quick Tips: To crush the hard candy, seal in a zip-top bag and pound with a meat mallet or small skillet.
Disks of dough can be refrigerated overnight or frozen, up to 1 month, and thawed in the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature until soft enough to roll.
Cookies can be stored in airtight containers, up to 1 week.

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• Very finely crushed hard candy, such as Jolly Rancher, in various colours (1 cup total)

Details

Servings 3
Preparation time 75mins
Cooking time 90mins
Adapted from marthastewart.com

Preparation

Step 1

STEP 1
In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, & salt. In large bowl, using electric mixer, beat butter & sugar on med.-high until light & fluffy, 3 min. Add eggs & 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 min.

STEP 2
Preheat oven to 350°, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between floured parchment paper to 1/8" thickness. Stack dough in parchment on a baking sheet; refrigerate until firm, 30 min. With a 2½" Christmas-ball-shaped cutter, cut out dough (re-roll scraps, if desired). Place cookies, 1" apart, on two parchment-lined baking sheets. With a 1" star cutter, cut out dough in center of each cookie. Bake until cookies are pale but set, 6-8 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, 3-5 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.