Stained Glass Cookies

Well, hello blog. It's been a long time. I recently moved so this is my first blog in my new place! I made some classic sugar cookies for our office holiday party with a new twist. The twist is the stained glass centers! I can't take credit for this idea, I did steal it off another website but I was surprised at how easy it really is and how nice looking they turned out.

  

I modified the Best Rolled Sugar Cookies recipe from Allrecipes.

Ingredients

•  3/4 cup butter, softened
•  Just shy of one cup of white sugar
•  2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Jolly Ranchers

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. (1/2 inch works better with these cookies) Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. 

Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper on cookie sheets. Cut the centers out of the cookies. It's best if you can do this on the sheet so the cookies remain their original shape.

Put Jolly Ranchers in a plastic bag and smash with a hammer. (Oh, how I love cooking with hammers). Sprinkler the Jolly Ranchers in the center of the cookie, better to have more than not enough to cover the area.  

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely. Then peel off the parchment paper and serve!