Stained-Glass Sugar Cookies
Photo: Romulo Yanes
Appeared In
Everyday Food, December 2011
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- Very finely crushed hard candy, such as Jolly Rancher, in various colors (1 cup total)
Cook's Note
Quick Tip: To crush the hard candy, seal in a zip-top bag and pound with a meat mallet or small skillet.
<p>Disks of dough can be refrigerated overnight or frozen, up to 1 month, and thawed in the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature until soft enough to roll. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers, up to 1 week.
Directions
- Step 1In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 3 minutes. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat to combine. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat to combine. Form dough into 2 disks, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Step 2Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between floured parchment paper to 1/8-inch thickness. Stack dough in parchment on a baking sheet; refrigerate until firm, 30 minutes. With a 2 1/2-inch Christmas-ball-shaped cutter, cut out dough (reroll scraps, if desired). Place cookies, 1 inch apart, on two parchment-lined baking sheets. With a 1-inch star cutter, cut out dough in center of each cookie. Bake until cookies are pale but set, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Remove sheets from oven; fill cutouts with crushed candy. Bake until cookies begin to brown at edges and candy is melted, 3 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

I tried it: http://i.imgur.com/yLvvx1q.jpg I think I nailed it right on the head, guys.
The concept is brilliant. Use the cookie recipe from Cook's Illustrated to run with Martha's concept. I did and the results were stunning.
Mine came out great! I used a large star with the mini six point star and they were gorgeous. I refrigerated longer than 30 minutes only because I was distracted...just in case that helps with the above complaints.
Well I tryed the recipe and it was a disaster. I followed the recipe to a T and when I tryed to roll it out it shattered and crumbled everywhere. I am very upset because I was suppose to take cookies over for a dinner party and ended up having to buy some because I didn't have time to make another batch. I will not I repeat will not use any of Martha Stewart recipes again ever this is the 2nd disaster.
the dough is terrible, It cracked as i was rolling it out - very hard to work with - I will never use this recipe again.
Its too bad too because they looked so cute in the picture