Sugar Cookies with Jolly Rancher Candy Center (Stained Glass Cookies!)
My kids love sugar cookies and they absolutely love Jolly Ranchers candy. So back in July when we had VBS and “Northern Lights” cookies (ie., Sugar Cookies with Jolly Rancher centers) were one of the suggested snacks, I knew they’d be a hit! They’re also called “Stained Glass” cookies which would be perfect for Christmas, dontcha think? I think so!!
Anyway… I bring that up because this past week as we were studying Ancient Egypt as part of our homeschool curriculum, one of the hands-on activities was to make our very own “clay” tablets with their names written in Cuneiform on them.
We opted to do that with homemade sugar cookie dough (as suggested… it was not just an excuse to bake cookies… I promise!).
Since the recipe has lots more cookie dough than we needed, we also made more cookies with Jolly Ranchers. I think this recipe would work well with any hard candy, but the Jolly Ranchers are my kids favorites!
These cookies can be as simple as you like, or you can take a little more time and make them a little more homemade.
I opted for homemade, because we absolutely love homemade sugar cookies and the kids love to help me make them.
We rolled out the dough, cut them in circles (about 3″), then cut out a 1″ hole in the middle and dropped in an unwrapped Jolly Rancher. I love this set of Ateco Round Cookie cutters… use them all.the.time!
Or in Noah’s case… he stretched his cookie and managed to fit two candies.
Then you bake them on aluminum foil as usual. You have to use the foil because of the melting candy.
And after they cool/set, you pull them off and enjoy!! Here’s the recipe:
Sugar Cookies with Jolly Rancher Candy Center
- Total Time: 20 minutes
Description
Beautiful quick and easy stained glass cookies.
Ingredients
- Sugar Cookie Dough – Use a favorite homemade sugar cookie recipe or use store- bought dough
- Hard Candies – we like Jolly Rancher Candy or Lifesavers
Instructions
- Roll our your cookie dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut 2-3 inch circles and then cut out the center (at least 1″) drop the hard candy into the hold and bake according to cookie recipe. Be sure to bake your cookies on aluminium foil!
- Allow the cookies to cook and the candy to set before removing from the cookie sheet! Enjoy!!
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 10
- Category: Desserts
Yum! Pinning to try!
These are so fun! I know my kids would love making these almost as much as they will love eating them. Thanks for sharing your recipe with us at Merry Monday this week!
did I read you do not unwrap the hard candy?? I am going to do these with Jolly Ranchers
Hi Brenda! You do unwrap it first. Hope you enjoy them!
Parchment paper works better so they don’t stick
Can I use salted butter instead of unsalted butter?
Yes!
How chewy/sticky/crunchy is the center? I want to use up a bunch of them bc I don’t want them all up on my kids teeth for the 30 years it takes them to dissolve, and we just got. TON at a church egg hunt. So I am hoping thinning them out like this makes them quickly crunched and gone?? So basic question is what is the consistency of the candy after baking?
The centers are hard and crunchy in my experience.