Show your Valentine how much you care with these delicious stained glass valentine cookies, yes, they’re completely edible and will literally melt in your mouth!
There are a couple of handy tricks to keep in mind when making these cookies, don’t make the cut out in the center too big or your “glass” won’t melt evenly and fill it, or will be too thin and will break easily.
Be sure to let the cookies cool completely before removing from the tray so the centers have time to properly set. To prevent the cookies from sticking together place them between sheets of waxed or parchment paper.
If you’d like to make cookie pops you can insert lollipop sticks into the bottoms of the hearts BEFORE baking.
Stained Glass Valentine Cookies Recipe
You’ll Need:
3 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
About 7 – 7 ½ cups flour
1 package Jolly Rancher candies
* 2 Heart shaped cookie cutters (1 slightly smaller!)
Preheat oven to 375F
In a medium-size bowl (or mixer) cream the sugar and butter together until smooth. Add vanilla extract, sour cream, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, mixing until smooth, Mix in baking soda, salt, and enough flour, to make a moderately stiff dough. Shape into a ball, place in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Remove from the fridge and divide in half- Roll out the dough on a floured surface about 1/8th of an inch thick and cut into heart shapes using the larger size heart. It helps to dip the cutter in flour first. Cut out the centers of the heart shapes with the smaller cookie cutter.
Place the heart cookies on cookie sheets that have been lined with a Silpat or at the very least parchment paper and fill each center with 1 unwrapped jolly rancher candy.
Bake 9-11 minutes or until the cookies the centers are fully melted and smooth. Cool completely before removing from cookie sheet.
makes 5-6 dozen cookies
Stained Glass Valentine Cookies Lovers Batch
If you’d prefer to make a small batch, say, just for you and your Valentine the recipe can be easily halved:
You’ll Need:
1 ½ cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2 small eggs
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
About 3 1/2 – 3 3/4 cups flour
½ package Jolly Rancher candies
* 2 Heart shaped cookie cutters (1 slightly smaller!)
Follow the same directions as above. Makes 2 ½- 3 dozen cookies
In any case, these cookies are perfect for lots of occasions, hearts for Valentines, baby showers, Christmas, etc. Little gingerbread men with the hearts cut out for the holidays, star shapes for the 4th of July, Memorial Day or Christmas, etc.
If you have other leftover hard candies, they can be used instead of jolly ranchers, but it is recommended to place them in a zip-close style bag and crush them with a rolling pin first. If you’re unsure of how much of the crushed candy to place in the center bake a single “test” cookie first to test how well they melt and spread.
Since candies vary considerably in size and texture we can’t really determine that for you!
© Can Stock Photo Inc. / RuthBlack
