DIY “Stained Glass” Heart Sunglasses Cookies

Around Christmas time, Pinterest was swarming with tutorials for “stained glass” ornament cookies using melted candy. We were brainstorming and trying to come up with other ways to use this technique, but put a little Summer spin on it, and then I looked at my heart shaped sunglasses! Clearly, you can put two and two together (or just look at the photo above) and know that we’re showing you how to make heart shaped sunglasses cookies today!!! Cookies + candy = two of my favorite things combined, so OBVIOUSLY I’m excited for this one. Plussss, if you can already make cookies, there are only a few more easy steps to give them this “stained glass” candy magic!

2 sticks of butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk
Jolly ranchers
Plastic ziploc bag
Rolling pin or hammer
Sunglasses cookie cutter (here)
Small hear cookie cutter

1. In a large bowl, mix the butter until it is fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar and mix to combine.

2. Add in the vanilla and milk and mix until they are incorporated. In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups flour with 3/4 teaspoons salt.

3. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and work until a cookie dough forms. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours or until firm.

4. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4″ thick. Using the heart sunglasses cookie cutter, cut the shapes out of your dough. Using the small heart cutter, cut hearts out of both of the lenses. We hand-cut our heart sunglasses, but you can use a cookie cutter if you want to save time.

5. Place the cut out dough on parchment paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

6. While the dough is chilling, place 6 watermelon (to get a pink color) jolly ranchers in a ziploc bag and crush them with a hammer or rolling pin.

7. Once the dough has chilled, place the cookies in the oven for 6 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and place the crushed up jolly ranchers inside the lens of the cookies, filling up all of the negative space with candy.

8. Put the cookies back in the oven for 2-3 minutes. Watch to make sure you don’t burn the candy. When the candy has just melted, remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool completely before peeling them off of the parchment paper.

Can you spot me in the lens of those sunglasses?! 😉 What are some other ways that you would use this stained glass technique? I’m wondering if it would work in chocolate chip sugar cookies too! Everything’s better with chocolate chips. Everything.