These stained glass window cookies are made with my favorite sugar cookies. Cut out the center of each and fill with crushed hard candies before baking. The candy melts as the cookies bake, creating a gorgeous windowpane effect. There’s no extra decorating or icing required! This is a fun and wildly impressive cookie you can add to your holiday baking.
I’ve always wanted to make this style of cookie. I saw stained glass window cookies, also known as windowpane cookies, featured on the cover of Food Network’s holiday magazine and decided it was fate. I used my own sugar cookie recipe, topped them with crisp sparkling sugar, and was delighted with how beautiful they turned out. My daughter was in awe!
Today I’m showing you exactly how I did it plus some success tips that I found helpful.
Tell Me About These Stained Glass Window Cookies
- Texture: Underneath all this glitz and glamour, we have a classic buttery sugar cookie, one of the most loved recipes on my site, in fact. It’s a foundation recipe that I’ve used time and time again to create new recipes, just l’ve done with chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, and even these vanilla cupcakes. If you avoid over-baking, they’re relatively soft with slightly crisp edges. The sparkling sugar on top adds a pleasant crunch. After the melted candy center cools, it becomes hard candy again. I found it easiest to eat the sugar cookie edges and save the hard candy center for last. The candy center is a thin layer, so it’s much easier to bite into/suck on than a full-size Jolly Rancher or other candy.
- Flavor: The sugar cookies have a sweet vanilla flavor. I was going to prepare them with vanilla sugar, but felt the fragrant vanilla bean would get lost under the fruity candy.
- Ease: Not too tricky! If you’re comfortable making cut-out sugar cookies, you’ll do just fine with these. I appreciate that there’s no finicky icing or decorating required—the cookies are decorated right out of the oven.
- Time: The cookie dough comes together in minutes. Roll it out, then chill it in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours. Without chilling, the cookies will completely lose their shape. (It’s a crucial step.) After that, cut the dough into shapes, re-roll the scraps, then fill with crushed candies and bake. Set aside a few hours to complete this recipe.
Overview: How to Make Stained Glass Window Cookies
The full printable recipe is below.
- Make sugar cookie dough. You only need 7 basic ingredients for this cookie dough.
- Divide in two pieces. Smaller sections of dough are easier to roll out.
- Roll out cookie dough. Roll it out to 1/4 inch thick or just under 1/4 inch thick.
- Chill rolled out dough. Without chilling, the cookies won’t hold their shape. Chill the rolled out dough in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days.
- Crush your candies. Unwrap the hard candies, separate the colors, then crush them into smaller pieces. More on this step below. Warning: it gets messy!
- Cut into shapes. You need 2 cookie cutter sizes for this recipe—1 large and 1 small. If you don’t have a small cookie cutter, use a knife to cut out a circle, diamond, or other easy shape. Have a little flour nearby when you’re rolling out the cookie dough. Keep your work surface, hands, and rolling pin lightly floured. Re-roll all your scraps—you’ll be surprised how many cookies you get from this amount of dough. Work quickly during this step because you don’t want the dough to become too soft.
- Top with coarse sugar or sprinkles. The topping is optional, but adds a beautiful sparkle. Brush the cookies with a beaten egg white or water to help the coarse sugar stick.
- Fill the centers with crushed candies.
- Bake & cool. Depending on their exact size, the cookies take about 12-13 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets until the melted candy center solidifies. Cooling usually takes about 15 minutes.
The Trick is the Order of Steps
Notice how I roll out the dough BEFORE chilling it in the refrigerator? If you’re curious, let me explain why I do this. To prevent the cookies from over-spreading, the cookie dough must chill in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough right after you prepare it, then chill the rolled-out dough. (At this point the dough is too soft to cut into shapes.) Don’t chill the cookie dough and then try to roll it out because it will be too cold and difficult to work with. I divide the dough in half before rolling it out and highly recommend you do the same. Smaller sections of dough are simply more manageable.
Best Candies to Use
Any semi-translucent hard candy works. Some examples include Jolly Ranchers, Life Savers, or clear-ish lollipops. (For lack of better words!) Candy canes work too—you just won’t have the same stained glass window look. If you don’t have candy like this where you live, you can make hard candy from scratch. Here’s a homemade hard candy recipe I’ve used and loved.
Tools You Need
- Rolling Pin: This is my favorite rolling pin. If you have difficulty evenly rolling out dough, try this adjustable rolling pin. It’s really helpful!
- Cookie Cutters: As I mention above, you need 2 cookie cutter sizes—1 large for the cookie’s shape and 1 for the center cut-out. I recommend a 3.5 or 4 inch cookie cutter for the cookie, then a 1.5 inch cookie cutter for the center. If you don’t have a tiny cookie cutter for the center, don’t worry about it. You can cut out a circle or any other shape using a sharp knife. If you want to purchase a large and mini cookie cutter set, though, I recommend this snowflake cookie cutter set (used in the photos and video) and this star set (used in the photos, great for kids). Or use a 3.5-4 inch circle cookie cutter and any shape mini cookie cutter. Here is a mini Christmas cookie cutter set. Or how fun would these be with hearts for Valentine’s Day cookies?!
- Plastic/Paper Bags: The best way to crush the hard candies is to place them in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling pin, which is a convenient tool because you need one for the dough. A meat mallet works too! Don’t crush the candies into a fine powder—we don’t want it to caramelize and burn. Instead, crush them into fine pebble-sized bits. The crushed candies will pierce the bag no matter how careful you are. Some candy dust will escape, so just know that this step is messy. If you don’t want to use plastic, use a paper bag or paper plate.
- Cookie/Baking Sheets: If you need a brand recommendation, I use and love USA Pan and Nordic Ware 12×17-inch half sheet pans.
- Parchment Paper or Silicone Baking Mats: I recommend baking the stained glass window cookies on lined baking sheets because the melted candy center will harden and stick to a bare pan. Using parchment paper or silicone mats is crucial if you want to remove the cookies in 1 piece. I actually use parchment paper and/or silicone baking mats for rolling out the cookie dough too. This is my little trick because you can easily transfer the rolled out dough to the refrigerator this way. Lift the paper/mat with the rolled out dough on top, put it on a baking sheet, and place it in the refrigerator. If you don’t have enough room for 2 baking sheets in your refrigerator, stack the rolled out dough on top of each other. (You can watch me do all this in the video tutorial above.)
- Pastry Brush: If you decide to top the cookies with coarse sugar or sprinkles before baking, you need to brush the surface of the cookie with a beaten egg white or a little water. This helps the coarse sugar/sprinkles stick. A pastry brush is handy.
Any of these baking tools would be great to add to your holiday wish list. And while you’re at it, be sure to check out my Holiday Baking Gift Guide. Lots of fun ideas in there, either for yourself or other baker friends!
FAQ: Can I Do This With Other Cookie Dough?
Absolutely! Instead of sugar cookie dough, try this process with chocolate sugar cookies, cream cheese cut-out cookies with Nutella glaze, or gingerbread cookies. Or you could even cut windows in gingerbread house dough to make actual stained glass windows. I need to try that next.
Sally’s Cookie Palooza
This recipe is part of my annual cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. It’s the biggest, most delicious event of the year! Browse dozens of cookie recipes over on the Sally’s Cookie Palooza page including:
- Crisp Molasses Cookies
- Salted Chocolate Pistachio Shortbread
- Peanut Butter Snickerdoodles
- Andes Mint Chocolate Cookies
- Pinwheel Cookies
And here are 75+ Christmas cookies with all my best success guides & tips.Â
Stained Glass Window Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (includes chilling)
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours (includes cooling)
- Yield: 24
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Sugar cookies turn into colorful windows when you fill their centers with crushed hard candies. Before starting, review the helpful video tutorial below and the success tips above.
Ingredients
- 2 and 1/4 cups (281g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled), plus more as needed for rolling and work surface
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 15–20 unwrapped hard candies, such as Jolly Ranchers or Life Savers
Optional Topping Before Baking
- 1 large egg white OR 2 Tablespoons (30ml) water
- 1/3 cup (65g) coarse sugar or sprinkles
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until completely smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. Dough will be a bit soft. If the dough seems too soft and sticky for rolling, add 1 more Tablespoon of flour.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Place each portion onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness or slightly thinner (anywhere between 1/8 – 1/4 inch is fine). Use more flour if the dough seems too sticky. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly thick.
- Lightly dust one of the rolled-out doughs with flour. Place a piece of parchment on top. (This prevents sticking.) Place the 2nd rolled-out dough on top. Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, then refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days.
- As the cookie dough chills, begin crushing the candies. The best way to crush the hard candies is to separate them by color, place each color in plastic bags, and crush them with a rolling pin or meat mallet. Don’t crush the candies into a fine powder—crush them into fine pebble-sized bits. The crushed candies will pierce the bag no matter how careful you are. Some candy dust will escape, so just know that this step is messy. If you don’t want to use plastic, use a paper bag or paper plate. (A bag is preferred so candy doesn’t go flying everywhere.) Set crushed candy aside.
- Once cookie dough has chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Carefully remove the top dough piece from the refrigerator. If it’s sticking to the bottom, run your hand under it to help remove it—see me do this in the video above. Using your large cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes. Using your small cookie cutter, cut out the center shape. (You don’t need the center piece—re-roll it!) Re-roll all the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd piece of dough. Note: It doesn’t seem like a lot of dough, but you get a lot of cookies from the dough scraps you re-roll.
- Carefully arrange cookies on baking sheets 3 inches apart. If your cookies are intricately shaped, use two hands to transfer them to the lined baking sheet.
- Optional Topping: If using an egg white, beat it lightly with a fork or small whisk for 10 seconds. It’s easier to brush onto tops of cookies if it’s beaten first. Brush tops of shaped cookies with egg white or water. Sprinkle coarse sugar/sprinkles on top.
- Fill Cookie Centers: Fill the cut-out centers about 3/4 full with crushed candies. The candy pieces melt and expand, so you don’t need to over-fill. I use and recommend 1 color per cookie, but feel free to mix for a spotty multicolor look. The candies are sticky, so wipe off your fingers as needed.
- Bake for 12-13 minutes or until candies have melted and the cookies are lightly browned around the edges. If your oven has hot spots, rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet until the melted candy center sets, about 15 minutes. Once melted candy center has set, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cover and store cookies at room temperature for up to 1 week. For longer storage, cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Sugar cookies freeze well up to 3 months. After candy center cools and sets, layer the cookies between sheets of parchment paper in a freezer-friendly container. To thaw, thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. You can also freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months before rolling it out. Prepare the dough through step 3, divide in half, flatten both halves into a disk as we do with pie crust, wrap each in plastic wrap, then freeze. To thaw, thaw the disks in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough as directed in step 4, then chill rolled out dough in the refrigerator for 45 minutes – 1 hour before cutting into shapes and baking.
- Optional Topping: In the pictured cookies, I used an egg white and white sparkling sugar sprinkles, something you can usually find in the baking aisle at the grocery store. (I like Wilton brand.) The egg white created a lovely golden sheen. If you use water, the cookies may look a little pale in comparison.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand Mixer) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mat or Parchment Paper | Rolling Pin or Adjustable Rolling Pin | Snowflake Cookie Cutters, Star Cookie Cutters and Mini Christmas Cookie Cutters | Pastry Brush | Cooling Rack
- Room Temperature: Room temperature butter is essential. If the dough is too sticky, your butter may have been too soft. Room temperature butter is actually cool to the touch. Room temperature egg is preferred so it’s quickly and evenly mixed into the cookie dough.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Adapted from Food Network
These were so much fun to make! The kids had a blast breaking up the Jolly Ranchers and when they saw how the cookies turned out with the colorful “windows” they went crazy. Thanks!
Talk about time consuming but equally rewarding. I found that I didn’t need to wait the full 15 minutes for the candy to set, more like 5-7 for me. Also I couldn’t be bothered to reroll all of the dough so I kept some of the inside cutouts to use as mini cookies. Even with that in mind this was by far my favorite cookie this season and probably my favorite recipe from 2020. Every year around this time I put together boxes with a variety of cookies and sometimes other small treats. These were an absolute hit with every who received cookies from me. Never recieved so many compliments on any one baked good. They’ll definitely be on the repeat list for next year’s boxes.
A simple recipe that yields a lovely cookie! I made with cream cheese cutout dough, since that’s my family’s favorite roll-out cookie, and it worked perfectly.
When I saw this recipe i was slightly intimidated by it, but you do such a excellent job Sally of breaking the recipe into steps, that it all came together beautifully! I’ve always made cookies that taste good, but aren’t beautiful. These cookies not only were very good, but they turned out beautiful! Thanks for the great and fun recipe!
This was such a fun recipe to make!! I enjoyed crushing the Jolly Ranchers (great stress reliever!). The dough is a perfect sugar cookie base and these are just the most festive, prettiest Christmas cookies.
Sally,such a fun recipe to make with kids. Made with my daughter and we loved rolling,cutting ,decorating with chocolate too.
Made these with a friend and her daughter and it was such a fun cookie experiment for the holidays! I expected the candy center to be harder than it was, so surprisingly, it wasn’t too bad, I assume since it was so thin! A lot of fun
Baking the Stained Glass Window cookies proved to be fun and they were incredibly buttery and tasty. When smashing the candy, I deviated from your suggestion and put a few pieces (by color) between waxed paper plates and lightly hammered away to perfectly sized pieces (pebbles). Additionally, the dough was so easy to work with, especially when following the important step of rolling it out before placing it into the refrigerator. Thanks for sharing the recipe and adding brightness to the holiday season.
What a fun and easy recipe. I enjoyed making these. May have broke my cutting board trying to smash those candies. So I pulsed them in a blender instead. Worked like a charm. Just had to be careful not to go too fine.
This was a fun snow day project! I’ve wasn’t sure that I’d like to hard candy center, so I made half the batch as stained glass windows and the other half as regular decorated sugar cookies. The stained glass ones turned out so pretty! I only baked two to start because I was sure I would mess it up, but I didn’t. The only issue I found was that the grape (purple) Jolly Ranchers ended up looking kind of brown, so I didn’t use those again. The watermelon and blue raspberry were perfect! I’m so excited for my nephews to try these, I think they’re going to love them. 🙂
I made these cookies in 1969, but made my own hard candy to break up. Nice to see this recipe. I am sure many will enjoy the beauty as well as the taste. I also made the mistake of hanging them on our Christmas tree without wrapping them (no cling wrap in those days) and woke up to a really big ant problem. I was young and naive. lol.
Had fun baking stain glass cookies. Although it was time consuming the end result was great.
Cool recipe, I bet would be fun to make with kids who are interested in baking.
We loved this recipe! We also found it much much easier to crush the jolly ranchers on our kitchen tile rather than on the counter. It took me almost five minutes trying to crush on the counter but about ten seconds on the tile. Something to try if you’re having trouble!
Great recipe with such a fun twist! The kids loved helping with the stained glass. I’ll be making these for years to come to hand out for Christmas cookies. They are a little bit of work but so so fun.
Hello Sally, thank you for this great recipe and the baking challenge. I just sent you the photos.
Merry Christmas !
Natalia
As always, another great recipe! I used life savers. Very happy with the results! Merry Christmas!!
Thanks for this recipe, they came out beautifully! I haven’t made rolled cookies for years, but rolling them out and then chilling was a genius idea. The flavor of the actual cookie is really good too, we are enjoying them!
This was fun! I adapted it to be gluten free by subbing in Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Flour, and I added 2 oz of cream cheese because I’ve found it helps a LOT with any grainy-ness from GF flour. They came out very pretty and festive and tasty 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Pamela! I’m sure many readers will appreciate this information.
I made these cookies with my 14 year old daughter. Her favorite part was crushing the candies (we used Jolly Ranchers)! I think next time we will try using Life Savers or another hard candy because we found it somewhat difficult to crush the Jolly Ranchers. In the end, they look beautiful and taste amazing! The sugar cookie dough was extremely easy to work with, and we appreciate all the tips given to help make the process as smooth as possible.
This was the first challenge I have done and it was a bright and cheery one! The sugar cookie was good and did not spread at all. I smashed the candy a little too much into dust and so the window area did not melt as well. I think next time I would use bigger pieces and make bigger windows. Thanks!
I baked these on Silpats and they looked great out of the oven but after cooling on the cookie sheet until set I couldn’t the cookies off the Silpat or the Silpat off the cookie sheet without cracking the cookies. It was all stuck together. I took the second batch off the cookie sheet when the candy was not quite set but those a also stuck to the Silpat. Where did Ido wrong? They taste
Hi Donna, did your silicone baking mats have any holes in it? It sounds like the candy melted through the mat. If you try the recipe again, see if parchment works better for you instead.
Yes, my Siloats look like mesh and the candy did melt through. The cookies were delicious and I’ll try these again with parchment. Thx.
This recipe was yummy! My kiddos live the cookies. I tried a couple of different cookie cutters, larger opening definitely looked better, big hit all around.
Baking is about experimentation, so I gave these a go. Sally’s sugar cookie recipe is one of my favs, so I knew these would taste great. My candies were super bubbly, and cooled very cloudy with bubbles trapped in them. I’m in the UK, and I couldn’t find Jolly Ranchers so I used M&S hard candies (I don’t recommend those). I just need to experiment with the candies.
I loved making these! The recipe was simple and the instructions thorough! I enjoyed making these and my family and I enjoyed devouring them 🙂
Really nice sugar cookie, everyone loved than and we’ll be making them again for sure
Could you use crushed up candy canes?
Candy canes work too, you just won’t have the same see-through stained glass window look!
I was a bit worried that the cookies were underdone because they started bubbling and I wanted a smooth finish for the stained glass. (Started bubbling 4 mins in) Would you suggest prebaking the cookie then adding the hard candy?
Hi Yaa, the cookies were bubbling or the candy? It may bubble a bit as it melts. (Nothing to be worried about.) The cookies shouldn’t bubble though.
The stain glassed sugar cookies were such fun to make!! I am not a huge fan of the hard candies, but they definitely gave my cookies a real pretty stain glass effect. Can’t wait to try another of your delicious recipes. I enjoy sharing these with my family members and classmates
We had so much fun making these. The kids loved sprinkling in the crushed candies and added some colored sanding sugar on top for good measure. They loved eating them too! I wasn’t sure I’d like the candy center but it was actually delicious.