Christmas Baking: Stained Glass Cookies

The holiday season can be very hectic for most, with parties, guests, and a lot of cooking and baking to top it all off. It has been quite similar here too and we have all thoroughly enjoyed the past few days. Christmas eve was spent baking the Stained Glass Cookies and our Intoxicated Christmas Cake.

As an ardent follower of Martha Stewart, I am frequently bombarded with gorgeous desserts, breads, crafts, etc., posted on her page. These cookies were part of the drool-worthy holiday recipes and were dainty, colorful, and almost too pretty to eat…yes, almost!

Ingredients (26 colored cookies +26 cut outs)

All-purpose flour – 1½ cups and a little more for rolling

Baking powder – ¼ teaspoon + ⅛ tsp

Unsalted butter* – ½ cup (1 stick) at room temperature (If you have salted butter on hand, you can use that too)

Salt* – ⅛ tsp (If using salted butter, please do not add more salt to the dough)

Sugar – ½ + ⅛ cups

Egg yolks - 2

Pure vanilla extract – ½ tbsp

Finely crushed hard candy (Jolly Rancher) in different colors – ½ cup

Method

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt (if using unsalted butter only).

Beat the butter and sugar, with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, until the mixture is light and airy. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and beat again. This step can be done by hand too, with a whisk.

Keeping the mixer on low speed, slowly add the flour and combine well/continue mixing by hand. At this stage you could use a wooden spoon or spatula.  

Once the dough comes together, use your hands to knead it to make two discs.

Wrap them in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 350^oF, with the racks placed on the upper and lower thirds. Place one disc between a floured and folded parchment paper and roll it out to ⅛ inch thickness. Put the disc, along with the parchment paper, into the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. Meanwhile work with the other disc and return it to the refrigerator. The original recipe calls for Christmas themed cookie cutters. Fall designs have been used here and you could pick any fancy shape you like.

Cut out the main cookies to about 2-2½ inch rounds/squares/desired shapes.

Place the cookies, one inch apart, on the cookie sheets.

Using the smaller shapes (Christmas/Fall/random shapes) cut out the middles. Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes till they are slightly set, but still light brown. Do remember to rotate the cookie sheets midway through the baking. The cut out portions can be baked along side the bigger ones.

Remove the cookies from the oven and fill the middles with the crushed candies. Return to the oven and continue baking until the edges brown a bit and the candy is completely melted. The smaller cookies may be done by this time, if not they can be returned to the oven too.

Remove and allow the cookies to cool completely before storing them in an airtight container. Bon Appètit.

Note:

The Jolly Rancher candies were available in the nearby super market, so I did not have to go looking for an alternate. You could use any other fruit-flavored hard candy instead.

To crush the candy, either use a mortar and a pestle or place the candy in a zip lock back and bang away with a rolling pin!

Our Mexican Sojourn

Let me start by apologizing for the long gap between posts…the excuse is lame and clichéd, but we have been really very busy.

My parents and mother-in-law are visiting from India and we took a trip to Mexico City last month. This trip had been planned almost six months in advance, and we had allotted seven days for it. On our last day in Mexico, we realized that a week was not enough for seeing the myriad churches and other sights.

The first thing that hit us when we got out of the airport was that Mexico looked just like any big Indian city…we related it to Chennai because we are all from there. The roads, the traffic, the incessant honking, and the drainage odor wafting in the air, all felt very familiar; the only things unfamiliar were the people and the language.

We had been forewarned that the city was dangerous in the nights and that we should be extra cautious when using the public transportation or local taxis. It could be because of our experience in Indian buses and trains that we found the trains quite comfortable, except for the occasional peak time crowd.

We stayed in a serviced apartment and managed to cook at least two meals on most days, at other times we ate from local joints. Being a food enthusiast, I enjoyed all the dishes I ate there and have been planning to write about them.
This was our first international vacation and we enjoyed every single moment. Thanks to the Google translate App on my husband’s phone and research done by my father, we were able to cross the language barrier a bit.

Our first restaurant experience in the city taught us that the people there are extremely patient and accommodating, especially to tourists like us. Another interesting factor that we noticed was that most of the people there, including servers and vendors, are literate. We would show them the phone (with the translated queries) and they were able to respond accordingly.

Overall, I have only one thing to say, Mexico City and its nearby locations are worth visiting. The beautiful churches, ancient pyramids, and castles together make Mexico City and its surrounding areas a tourist’s paradise.

There were many roadside eateries all over the city. We did not venture to eat from there, because we weren't sure what all was being served

Appetizers: Tortialla chips and fresh bread

Tomato Soup

Vegetable enchiladas in a spinach cream sauce

We went to Isckon temple in Mexico city and this was part of the prasadam lunch provided there: Bread and potato stuffed empanadas (tasted like samosas)

Salad

Maha prasadm: Rice pudding and a berry pie

Fresh papaya juice

Fresh tamarind juice

Vegetable soup

Main course: rice, greens, and eggplant

Dinner made at home: Curd rice with exotic garnishing, spicy boondi and bhujiya sev with mango pickle

Lunch at La Zanahoria (The Carrot): Steamed vegetables with a spicy salsa

Fresh naranja (orange) juice

Another enchilada, but this one was in a salsa verde sauce. Tasty and lighter than the spinach and cream base

Dessert was from...any guesses? McDonalds...yes you read it right!!!

Varieties of bread bought from a bakery right across from our apartment. The breads were light and fluffy, with a nice crust. Another thing we liked was the price, four breads and one sandwich cookie together cost less than $1.50

This bread had sugar a encrusted outer crust, very yummy!

Sandwich cookie

Soup from a can and fresh bread, not a bad dinner!

Lunch at Dipao Restaurant

Olive oil and balsamic vinegar to go with bread

Vegetable Pizza

Vegetable Pizza