Heart & Cross Stained Glass Brown Sugar Cookie

As Good Friday and Easter approaches, we are reminded of God's love for us by sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. But Jesus didn't stay dead. He rose again in the third day so that all who believe in Him can have hope of eternal life!

This is my first attempt at stained glass cookie so pardon my amateurish-looking cookie :p. I have a request for some teddy bear cookies so I made use of the same dough to create something to remind my kids of why we celebrate Good Friday and Easter. No easter eggs or bunnies. Just a simple symbolic cookie with a red cross to represent Jesus' blood shed for us on the cross, sun rays behind the cross to represent the risen Christ, and a big heart to represent God's love for us.

I shone a torch light behind the cookie to illuminate the "stained glass"

Without the backlight

You may refer to this recipe for the brown sugar cookie dough. I chose this as the cookie base as it is very yummy and very forgiving when it comes to overbaking it. (You may tend to overbake when melting the sweets for the stained glass). Simply let the cookie rest for a few days or so before eating if it is too hard. The texture should be soft and chewy.

 Roll the dough to 5mm thick. Use a cookie cutter/ knife to cut out the shapes. I made a template out of plastic sheet to help me cut out the shapes more neatly.

As the cookie dough will expand, make sure that the holes are big enough. I had to cut the holes bigger halfway through baking. Make the width of the struts about 6-7mm wide.

Chill the dough on baking tray lined with baking sheet in the fridge for 15 minutes while preheating the oven to 170°C. Place some boiled sweets in ziplock bags with the sweet wrapper on. Use a tenderizer to pound the sweets. Just a sharp hard tap on each sweet will do.

Bake the cookie for about 8-10 minutes or until browned. Do not underbake the cookie as it will be too soft and break upon handling. Remove the tray from the oven and add the crushed sweets into the holes.

Place the tray back into the oven and bake for another 3-5 minutes or until all the sweet has melted and the stained glass looks even.

Freshly baked!

Let the cookie cool completely on the tray before removing carefully. Store in air tight container. These can keep for a couple of weeks.

My kids had fun eating this huge cookie while having a good reminder of what Easter is about :)

With lots of love,
Phay Shing