Stained Glass Heart Sugar Cookies

 These Stained Glass Heart Sugar cookies are a pretty treat for your loved ones this Valentine's Day and surprisingly easy to make. The goal in creating this cookie was not so much to come up with the perfect sugar cookie, but a pretty special looking cookie. I am not a sugar cookie fan. In fact, truth be told, I rather loathe decorating sugar cookies at Christmas. Not to mention that I find them to taste just "okay" for a cookie that kind of requires a lot of work. I am pleased to report that these cookies are actually the BEST sugar cookies I have ever had. I mean I LIKE THEM! They are relatively easier than any sugar cookie I have ever made as well. There is no chilling the dough and my kitchen did not get as messy with a ton of extra flour. I mean, you will need flour to roll out the dough, but not as much as others.  With that being said, I prefer them without the pretty stained glass feature in the center, but they still are tasty :-) I made up about 6 stained glass cookies and the rest regular cut out sugar cookies that I frosted and topped with decorative dark pink sugar. Nothing fancy, but mixed in with the stained glass cookies it was quite lovely....and.....TASTY!

Ingredients

1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter brought to room temperature

1 1/2 C sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 3/4 C all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp red food coloring

1 bag of Jolly Ranchers

 

 

Directions:

 

-Preheat Oven to 350 and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

-Separate the Jolly Ranchers into flavors and set aside watermelon and cherry to use. I did grape as well and it turned out really yucky. It smelled like cough syrup as it cooked and tasted about like it too. Learn from my mistakes and just don't do it ;-) Set the rest aside for use at a later time. Or you can just suck on them as you make these cookies :-P



 



-Unwrap the candy and smash them with either a rolling pin or flat side of a meat mallet. They don't have to be really well smashed up. Just enough to spread evenly in the cut out portion of your cookie. Set aside until ready to use.

-In a mixing bowl, beat the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy (I wish butter made me light and fluffy instead of just fluffy).
-Beat in the egg, vanilla extract and red food coloring.
-Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl.
-Add flour mixture one cup at a time to the sugar mixture. Beat for 20 seconds after each add.
-Divide dough into 2 balls.
-On a floured surface, roll each ball into a circle approximately 1/8 inch thick.
-Dip your cookie cutters in flour and cut out shapes.
These are the ones I used:

-Make sure to cut out a large shape first and center the smaller shape inside it and cut that out too. The small shape can just be used as a regular cookie that you frost normally :-)

-Carefully place cookies on prepared cookie sheet and fill the center with smashed Jolly Rancher. Make sure you do not sprinkle any of the extra on the cookie because it will melt and look icky. In fact, I left a little bit of room between the candy center and the cookie since it melts down.

 -Bake cookies for 9 - 11 minutes or until they are lightly browned.

 -Let them cool completely before removing to a wire rack.
- Embellish them with frosting to hide where the stained glass meets the cookie with your favorite butter cream frosting.

 Place on a cute platter and serve to friends and family.

Be prepared....you will get a lot of "Wow!" and "Those look so cool!" :-)