Stained Glass Cookie Recipe Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
(HINT: use butter, they sure taste better even if there are a few more calories. Geeze! You're eating a cookie, not a piece of celery. Forget the diet for once!)
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 -1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
3 -3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. each baking soda and salt
2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
Red or green food coloring
1/2 to 1 tsp. flavoring, such as raspberry, peppermint, or pineapple

Stained Glass Cookies Recipe Directions

In a large bowl and electric mixer, beat shortening, butter, and 1 -1/2 cups of granulated sugar until creamy; beat in the sour cream, vanilla, and egg. In another bowl, stir together the flour, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, blending thoroughly. Cover dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until next day.

Divide dough into quarters. Work with one portion at a time; keep remaining dough refrigerated until ready to roll. Roll out onto a floured board to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Cut out with a 4 inch round cookie cutter and transfer to greased baking sheets, spacing cookies about 1 inch apart. Refrigerate sheets. When cookies are cold, cut out centers with a smaller cutter. Refrigerate scraps to re-roll with remaining dough.

Bake stained glass cookies in a 380 degrees oven for 6 to 8 minutes or just until firm but not yet browned around the edges. Let cool on cookie sheets for 5 minutes; transfer to a flat surface and let cool completely.

Cut 1/4 inch ribbon into 8 inch lengths. Loop a piece of ribbon through center of each cooled cookie; tie securely at top. Arrange cookies, right side up, on greased baking sheets.

For candy centers, place two, 1 cup glass measuring cups, in a 380 degrees oven to preheat. Combine the 2 cups sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 2 quart pan. Cook over medium high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Then cook without stirring until syrup reaches 280 degrees (hard crack stage) on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat; stir in your choice of food color and flavorings.

Remove one measuring cup from oven; fill with half the syrup (keep the remaining syrup over low heat). As soon as syrup in cup stops bubbling, hold cup with a pot holder and pour syrup in a thin stream to fill cookie centers. Repeat, using second cup and remaining syrup. Let cookies cool completely; twist gently to loosen from pan, then slide off sheets. Store airtight in a single layer in a cool, dry place.

This stained glass cookies recipe make about 2 dozen cookies.