Giant Stained Glass Sugar Cookies For Christmas

GIANT STAINED GLASS SUGAR COOKIES

Yesterday was baking day! I tackled a project I had had in mind to do with the girls for awhile. We made giant stained glass sugar cookies. I found a new sugar cookie recipe that doesn't need to be chilled and it is so YUMMY! It's going to be my new, all time favorite sugar cookie recipe!  We had so much fun making and baking these. We will definitely be making these again. 

 Supplies you will need besides the baking supplies and cookie pans and of course the rolling pin are miniature cookie cutters. I also had a cookie cutter with a removable round center piece that I used for the round shapes. To make the giant cookies I used the lid from a large container of baking powder that I bought at Sam's Club. Probably any extra large lid 5 or 6 inches across would work. Also make sure to bake these on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper so they will be easy to remove.

BEST SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE EVER!
 credit given to Katrina's Kitchen for this wonderful recipe

Yield: 3 dozen large cookies
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 6-8 minutes
Total Time: 38 minutes

Soft cut out sugar cookie recipe that keeps its shape and dough does not need to be chilled before baking- perfect edges every time!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of butter, softened
• 2 cups of granulated white sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of almond extract
• 2 eggs
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 6 cups all purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. In the bowl of your mixer cream butter and sugar until smooth.
3. Beat in extracts and eggs.
4. In a separate bowl combine baking powder with flour and add a little at a time to the wet ingredients. The dough will be very stiff. If it becomes too stiff for your mixer turn out the dough onto a countertop surface. Wet your hands and finish off kneading the dough by hand.
5. DO NOT CHILL THE DOUGH. Divide into workable batches, roll out onto a floured surface and cut. You want these cookies to be on the thicker side (closer to 1/4 inch rather than 1/8).
6. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the cookie sheet until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

Notes:

• If you must chill the dough just leave it on the countertop for 10 minutes before rolling or work the dough with your hands for a few minutes.
• I hesitate to put a recipe yield on cut out cookie recipes because the yield varies with the size of cookie cutters being used. This recipe makes a LARGE amount of dough. It can easily be halved to meet your needs.
• You can omit the almond extract if you do not have it available, however the taste is really fantastic with the hint of almond.

I do want to point out that when you make these it is very important they not be too thin. The dough also needs to have nice clean cut edges so the candy doesn't wick up into the cookie as it melts.  These giant cookies are approximately 5 inches across and at least 1/4 inch thick. Also this is very important. When you make these bake the cookies for 6-7 minutes, then remove them from the oven and add the crushed candy to the cutouts, then return to the oven and bake for another 6-7 minutes or so more. Otherwise the candy melts too much and will either burn or run everywhere. Trust me I know from experience! Also it's hard to tell when the cookies are done. Don't wait too long or they will be too done!  Total baking time for us per pan of cookies was about 12 minutes, but that may vary for you depending on your oven. Also this recipe makes at least a dozen giant cookies. We also baked the cutouts and they made nice size cookies even though we used miniature cookie cutters for the cutouts.

Have fun and enjoy baking and creating with your little ones and older ones too!

Christmas Cookie Baking FLOP!

This year will go down in our memory banks as the year of the crummy Christmas cookies! Talk about horrible! They were awful tasting and to coin one of my own phrases, they were gag-awful. I wanted to do a lot of different things with the girls this December and cookie baking was on the list. So while grocery shopping at Aldi's, the other day I spied some pre-made Christmas cookie dough on sale. I thought what the hay, most things I buy at Aldi's is good, so we'll try these. I bought two cans of the cookie dough mind you.  I figured I would save time by buying pre-made Christmas cookie dough.

A few days passed and yesterday I told the girls we would make cookies in the afternoon if they got the kitchen cleaned up. Once the kitchen was all tidy, or as tidy as it could be gotten by the two girls living here, we got out the cans of pre-made Christmas cookie dough. Oh we were going to have fun and make memories. Well we made memories all right!

We sliced the cookies and put them on cookie sheets and slid the cookie sheets into the oven, then we waited. In no time we had cookies! Everyone couldn't wait to taste them and I was thinking to myself, Way to go self! I had checked off from my list another item I wanted to do with the girls this year. It was so easy and simple. I was almost ready to give myself a big pat on the back........then I tried one of those cookies. I thought I would gag. They were awful. I even said to the girls These are awful! My thirteen year old burst out laughing and said, I KNOW! My five year old only ate a cookie and I'm not sure she finished it. The redemption of these awful Christmas cookies was only in the fact that the dogs loved them! They must taste like something dogs like or maybe it's just that dogs will eat almost anything, but these dogs finished off the plate of cookies with an eagerness that was a sight to behold. Put your fears to rest lest you think the dogs might have been harmed. They are fine and healthy and robust as ever this morning.

The thirteen year old thought it would be funny to put some cookies  in the cookie jar for when their dad got home and watch for his reaction when he bit into one. Ha Ha Ha, I didn't allow them to do that, but I did sort of snicker at the thought. Wicked sense of humor I guess and these girls have inherited it. Oh and if you think the fun stopped after we baked and then sampled these awful cookies then think again. Apparently something had ran over in the oven from a few days before and the oven smoked so bad you'd have thought we were on fire here! We were gagging and even as frigid as the weather is outside we had the doors open and fans on full blast to try and clear the smoke.

Oh yes, we made memories. Just not the warm memories I had envisioned in my head of baking Christmas cookies. I've learned my lesson and I won't be so quick to take shortcuts or pat myself on the back from here on out. Take it from me and save yourself some money and the horror of baking cookies like these, and make your Christmas cookies from scratch!

The worst Christmas cookies ever! lol