Almond stained glass sugar cookies are so much easier to make than I anticipated! It’s basically a sugar cookie with the middle cut out, filled with hard candy that melts while baking and it creates a very fun looking stained glass window display.
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I first saw this on Sallys Baking Addiction and I fell in love with how pretty they looked. I’ve been into anything almond so I adjusted the recipe slightly to make it an almond sugar cookie. She has a great step by step video that was useful because as you all know, I’m extremely intimidated by baking.
For the first time ever, I weighed my ingredients while baking and I’m sure that helped. ( I use this scale for those wondering). She suggests adding coarse sugar on top before baking and I do think they would be even prettier with the sugar but I didnt have any.
What you will need to make it a successful baking experience:
- room temperature butter and eggs. Dont cut this corner.
- a scale. You can eyeball it and use cups and teaspoons but with baking being so precise, I say invest in a scale and your results will be better
- a hand mixer or standmixer
- parchment paper
- baking sheets
- rolling pin
- silicone baking mat preferred (first time using it and I felt like it made baking so much more enjoyable
- baking brush to brush cookies with egg white
- and of course, cookie cutters ( two sizes of similar design)
If you enjoyed making these cookies, you should also try
- Gingerbread cookies ( you can also use the gingerbread cookie dough to make stained glass cookies)
- Shortbread cookies
- Tahini shortbread cookies (we won the LA Times cookie award for this cookie!)
- Sprinkle almond cookies
- Linzer cookie
- Super delicious Italian ricotta cookies
- The best Nutella cookies
- Pecan balls also known as Mexican wedding cookies (delicious!)
A very fun cookie thats easy to make using hard candy that melts in the center and creates a stained glass effect
- 2 and 1/4 cups 281g all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup 170g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup 155g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 packs of Life Savers or any clear hard candy
- 1 egg white for brushing cookies
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.
- In a large bowl (using a hand mixer or stand mixer) beat butter and sugar no more than 2 minutes.
- Add egg and vanilla and beat for no more than 1 minute on high speed
- Make sure everything is well combined
- Add dry ingredients
- Beat together for less than a minute
- Dough should be soft
- Roll out dough on well floured surface(dust with more flour if it is sticky)
- Using a rolling pin, roll it to 1/4 inch thickness, cover with plastic wrap and plave in the fridge for at least an hour, up to 24 hours
- Separate candy by color, place in a plastic bag, and crush candy, set aside
- Preheat oven to 350
- Using two cookie cutters, same shape, different sizes; cut out larger shape. Then using the smaller cookie cutter, cut the center and fill with hard candy
- Arrange on baking sheet 3 inches apart
- Whisk egg white to make it easier to brush cookies (that will give it a nice golden color)
- Bake for 12 minutes
- Let is cool completely before transferring it to cooling rack
- you can brush cookies with water if you prefer but the cookies will look more pale than golden
- you can mix hard candy colors in the center but I like it with just one color in each center
- You can crush any hard candy, including candy canes, jolly rancher, life savers, lollipops
- Adding coarse sugar on top before baking adds a nice fun texture
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