Stained Glass Window Cookies - Take One

The Christmas preparations are in full swing ... for everyone else it seems!!! All the commotions and house guest's over the last few weeks have meant that I am rather behind schedule but I did manage to find five minutes through the week to make these cookies which have received rave reviews from everyone who has tried them.

Stained Glass Window Cookies

175g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

75g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

75g caster sugar

30ml golden syrup

1 egg yolk

150g brightly coloured, clear boiled sweets (I've used up the leftovers from the gingerbread house)

Put the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and butter into a food processor. Process until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the sugar, syrup and egg yolk to the food processor, then process again until the mixture starts to cling together in a dough.

Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Wrap in cling film and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment.

Roll out the dough thinly on a lightly floured surface. Use cookie cutters to cut rounds from the dough and then Christmas shapes to cut out the centers of each circle, remove the dough from the centers.

Carefully transfer the shapes to the lined baking sheets (I actually rolled the dough out on the baking parchment on the tray and then just peeled the excess dough away from the cookie circles).

If these are to be made into tree decorations then use a small knife or straw etc to make a hole at the top of each circle.

Bake the cookies for 5 mins. Meanwhile, lightly crush the sweets by gently tapping them with the end of a rolling pin.

Remove the cookies from the oven and quickly fill the centers of each one with the crushed sweets.

Return the cookies to the oven for a further 5 mins, until the sweets have melted. Remove from the oven and use a skewer to remark the holes if they have shrunk during cooking.

Leave the cookies on the baking sheet until the melted sweets have hardened. Once the centers are hard, gently peel away the paper from the cookies.

Thread fine ribbon through the holes and hang as decorations.

Makes 12 - 14

Adapted from 'The Cookie and Biscuit Bible'

Despite everyone else loving these biscuits, I'm not the biggest fan. The cinnamon is quite strong and the biscuit is quite soft and spread quite a bit more than I expected while cooking. The stars ended up looking a bit like a blob and it is impossible to tell the difference between the gingerbread boy and the gingerbread girl. All the other taste testers (and there have been many!) like the change in texture from soft cookie to hard sweet in the middle so I'll let yo make up your own mind. meanwhile, my quest for the perfect Stained Glass Window Cookie will continue.