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I make stained glass cookies last year and cannot stress enough to use good quality (flavor) candies if you intend to eat these, instead of just hanging them like an ornament. I recommend a 'gingersnap' type cookie with a butterscotch center, pretty and delicious.

I've never seen these before. Very pretty!

I tried to make some of these from a recipe in Martha Stewart's Blueprint magazine a few years ago. I was having a hard time crushing the candies with a rolling pin, so I figured I would try it in my food processor ...do NOT do this!! Stupidly, I broke my food processor doing this, and the candies I did crush were powdery (thanks for the tip!), so they obviously didn't work and just melted in pools around the cookies.

These cookies are so pretty though I have to try again this year -- but I'll definitely stick to the rolling pin. :)

I made these one Christmas for tree ornaments. They were beautiful with the lights shining from behind. However, when we woke in the morning, all the candy center had dripped out of the cookie onto the tree. The humidity in the house melted the hard candy centers and made a mess.

Yup- My sister, cousin and I used to make these every year with our Granny. Soooo delicious, though ours never looked as good as these!

Kitchenist

I used to make these every year with my mom. They never looked quite as clean and precise as those in the pictures but I always thought they were beautiful. We always used Lifesavers for the candy centers - didn't actually crush them, just broke them up into smaller pieces and placed them in the centers. Worked like a dream!

I made a big gingerbread man recently and was really grateful to find a red jolly rancher in the trick or treat bag. His red candy mouth was the kid's favorite part .I've also seen blue candy melted to make an ice rink for gingerbread landscapes.

These cookies were one of my first experiences as a child of "just 'cause it is pretty, that doesn't mean it is good to eat."

We made ours with broken-up lollipops, and the flavor was fine, but managing to eat them was difficult - you could eat the cookie, but the candy was too thick and hard to crunch up and too big to fit into my mouth. I ended up eating the cookie and then struggling with a sticky, sharp piece of candy...and the long eating time of the candy center meant I only got one cookie!

Ours had a higher candy-to-cookie ratio than those pictured, so maybe that was the problem.

That leads me to a question - (assuming the candy section is sufficiently thin to "shatter" as advertised) are they as delicious as they are beautiful?

Ultimately, I'm looking for a really yummy rolled-cookie recipe that's tender rather than tough. I'd appreciate any recommendations. I've tried a couple of randomly-Googled ones, and they've been okay but not amazing.

To avoid melted candy running over before the cookie is done, fill the window slightly under the thickness of the cookie. This is such a great article that I linked to it on my stained glass window cookies <A href="http://www.beyondtherockz.com/the-art-of-light.html">post</A>! Thank you very much!