How to Make Stained Glass Cookies

This is an easy way of how to make stained glass cookies with Jolly Ranchers in any shape but shamrock cookies are so fun for St. Patricks Day. A window cookie with a stain glass look using candies. Fun to can make with kids with refrigerated sugar cookies.

Stained Glass Cookies

Just a few ingredients and you have yourself some stain glass cookies. You can even use refrigerated cookie dough instead of making homemade cookie dough if you’re in a hurry. Either way will work nicely once you roll them out.

Like I said, you can buy refrigerated sugar cookie dough to start with or make it from scratch which isn’t too hard either. If it’s premade you just use the shamrock cookie cutter to cut out the shape you will need.

How to Make Stained Glass Cookies with Jolly Ranchers

I will say it works a bit better with homemade dough though (not quite as sticky). Here is what you will need for these St.Patricks Day cookies and links to items you may not have at home:

Stained Glass Window Cookies

If you want to make homemade sugar cookie dough you can and we have instructions below. With a roll of dough you skip that step. Just put in between two pieces of parchment paper to roll out so you can cut into the shapes you want.

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour
2. Sugar
3. Softened butter
4. Egg
5. Baking powder
6. Salt
7. Vanilla
8. Parchment paper is essential so they don’t stick to the pan
9. Green Jolly Rancher candies or any colors you want
10. Use a shamrock cookie cutter or any shape you want for the upcoming holiday
11. Round cookie cutter to make the initial cut

You can kinda’ see the step by step of how these were made here below. Use whatever top shape you want so the “glass” shines thru when they are done being baked. Here are brief directions below but there is a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post as well:

How do you make cookies look like stained glass?

It is just melted clear candies, and a hack to make it look like a window essentially. I have a printable recipe card at the very bottom as well but here is a quick rundown. There is a little bit of prep that goes into these ahead of time like crushing the candies and making the dough. You could do this ahead of time if you wanted to.

1. Set oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl beat butter and sugar with mixer then add egg and vanilla. Mix your sugar cookie recipe until fluffy.
3. Add flour, baking powder, and salt into wet mixture.
4. Mix until dry ingredients are mixed well. You could add green food color to the dough but white makes the middles stand out more.
5. Take dough and roll into a ball and place on floured counter top.

Take rolling pin and roll out the dough until it’s about ¼ inch thick. If it’s sticking to rolling pin, add more flour to top of dough. You can use any flavor or shape you like really (chocolate dough works too but plain shows the colors more).

If you would rather use the glass like sprinkles you could. Those will melt similar to these candies and there is no breaking them up necessary.

How to Make Clear Stained Glass Cookies

1. Cut out circles then cut out the shamrock shape in the middle. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.
2. Take Jolly Ranchers and place in baggie, hit with a heavy object like a meat mallet to break it up into little pieces.
3. Place the jolly rancher pieces inside to create a candy center that will melt and shine.
4. Place in oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. Take out before the edges turn golden brown.
5. If you are making a candy charcuterie board these would be a cute edible decoration to spread throughout.

If you love these Shamrock cookies you should print out this free St. Patrick’s Day word search too! A great addition to a get together with kids. We have other free printables on our site you can grab too if you want more. Want a few other ideas to bake and serve to your guests? I have a few other ideas below…

Stained Glass Cookies with Sprinkles

You sometimes can find the mystery flavor candies that are clear. If not you can grab clear sprinkles online and use that. With those you can color whatever shade you want or leave as is. Makes it possible to make any combination and colors you want.

• Another easy dessert that you can create multiple colors with are our cake mix crinkle cookies. Rolled in confectioners sugar they become a crackled pretty top with color peeking thru.
• Using whatever flavor you like you can then try lemon, chocolate or even red velvet cookies this way.
  • The best way to make these is to chill before coating the outside. Just takes about 30 minutes to do this wrapped in plastic wrap so it’s not so sticky.

A dessert charcuterie board of sorts you can make with a few different types if you are having people over for a holiday get together. OR this is how to host a cookie exchange so you can make and bake them all together. If you have a hand me down recipe that is something you should include too because those always come with a story too. 😉