Stained Glass Cookies

How to make stained glass cookies! Without crushing candy. These are super easy to make, make great treats for kids and you can even poke a hole in a point and hang them from your tree. Something to keep in mind...the cookie is delicious, the candy is delicious but together, they are weird to eat. Another note: Jolly Ranchers make a clear, shiny center and LifeSavers produce a dull and opaque center. Just something to keep in mind.

What you'll need:
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3-1/4 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp each of baking soda, baking powder and salt

In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together butter or margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs and vanilla and beat well. Gradually add in flour mixture and mix just until incorporated. Cover and refrigerate dough for at least an hour or until well chilled. Alternately, you can use store bought sugar cookies in a tube and roll those out. They work just as well.

Preheat oven to 375*F. Roll cookies out to 1/4" thickness. Using a large star cookie cutter, cut out the stars. Transfer to a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. Using a smaller star cookie cutter, cut out the centers. Place 1 candy in each of the centers. Place cookie sheet into freezer for 10 minutes to prevent the cookies from spreading too much. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just light brown on the corners of the cookies. Let cool completely and then remove from the foil.

For the royal icing:
1 cup powdered sugar (icing sugar)
3-4 tsp milk

Combine powdered sugar and milk until an icing is formed. You may need to add more milk or powdered sugar to make it a thin paste/thick icing for piping. Put into a zip top bag and snip off the corner to decorate.

Inspiration came from here although I used a different cookie dough as the one posted: http://www.wgbh.org/articles/Stained-...