Valentine's Stained Glass Cookie Decorations

I began thinking of these (and another project that will hopefully be posted later in the week) just before I went out of town. I've been working on them in my mind ever since and it's good to be able to finally get them done and hung up on my necklace tree.



It is based on a project of Martha's, using gingerbread instead of sugar cookie dough. The recipe calls for the use of crushed hard candies, but at Christmastime I destroyed a cookie sheet trying to crush jolly ranchers. This time, I just used the whole candies, which worked fine. It took a bit longer to melt is all.

Added Note- Since this post, I have figured out a simple way to get small pieces of hard candy. I posted it here. It would be handy if you have a hole that's smaller than the jolly ranchers or if you want to mix colors.

I used this gingerbread recipe, but didn't add all 9 cups of flour. I've never worked with gingerbread before and had to muddle my way through. I think it came out all right, though.

Basically, I pulled the gingerbread out of the oven about 10 minutes before it was done and waited for it to cool before adding the candies and twine. I set it up like this with the baker's twine through the middle because I forgot to poke holes in this batch.



I put them back in the 275 degree oven (watching carefully the entire time) for between 5 and 10 minutes, just until they were melted like so.



It also works with Creme Savers.



I do suggest that you melt the same kind all at once, since they have different melting times and some may begin to bubble before the others are done.

They looked so great when I held them up to the light that I decided to hang them from my winter garland.



BTW, watermelon jolly ranchers are pink, cherry jolly ranchers are red and the one that is opaque is from the life savers.

Obviously, these would work well as cookies instead of decorations; just leave out the twine.

--------------------------------

Enjoy this tutorial? Get more like it by subscribing to my RSS feed

--------------------------------

Related Posts-


Valentine's Day Gingerbread House


Crushed Hard Candy


Halloween Cookie Shack


Stained Glass Cookies Flickr Group