Beautiful Gingerbread House Stained Glass Windows
If you are looking to up your gingerbread house game, you will love this easy hack for beautiful gingerbread house stained glass windows. By using your favorite hard candies, you can replicate the look of stained glass. It is completely edible and looks stunning.
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Medium saucepan
- Rolling Pin
- Cookie sheets
- Parchment paper
- Pizza cutter or cookie cutters
Ingredients
- 5 1/2 - 6 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 cup solid vegetable shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/4 cups molasses
- Hard candies such as jolly ranchers
Instructions
- Preheat the Oven and Prepare Your Cookie Trays - Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Line your cookie trays with parchment paper, or if you prefer, use silicone baking mats.
- Mix Together Flour, Baking Soda, Salt, and Spices - In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
- Melt Shortening - In a medium saucepan, heat the shortening until fully melted. Allow the shortening to cool slightly once melted.
- Add Sugar, Eggs, and Molasses - Add the eggs, sugar, and molasses to the saucepan with the melted shortening. Mix the ingredients together while they are still in the saucepan.
- Combine Wet and Dry Ingredients - Add four cups of your dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
- Turn Ingredients Out On Work Surface - On a lightly floured work surface, turn out your gingerbread dough. Knead in the remaining dry ingredients, adding more flour if needed to create a firm dough
- Roll Out the Gingerbread Dough - Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough till it is 1/4-1/8 inch in thickness. Use a pizza cutter or cookie cutters to cut out the shape of your gingerbread house.
- Crush Hard Candies - Use your rolling pins to crush the jolly ranchers or your hard candy of choice. To make it easier, you can place each color in a separate bag and crush them from there.
- Bake Cookies - Add your gingerbread to the baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake small cookies for 6-10 minutes and large cookies for 10-15 minutes. Bake the cookies you are going to add stained glass windows to for five minutes less.
- Add Hard Candies - When the cookies with window cutouts have five minutes left, pull them out of the oven. Add a few different colors of the crushed candy to the gingerbread windows of your house.
- Return Cookies to Oven - After adding the crushed hard candies, return the gingerbread dough to the oven. Bake the cookies for another five minutes, allowing the hard candies to melt. Allow the cookies to cool on the pans for at least 10 minutes before transferring to the wire rack.
- Assemble Your Gingerbread House - Once your gingerbread cookies have cooled completely, you can assemble your gingerbread house using icing. After assembly, you can proceed to decorate it however you'd like.
Notes
Your homemade gingerbread house can be kept on display for about two to four weeks. For best results, cover your gingerbread house at night with plastic wrap to help keep it fresh. It is best to keep it in a cool, dry area away from direct sunlight or a heat source.
In addition to jolly ranchers, you can also use hard light savers or even butterscotch candies to make your stained glass windows. For the most vibrant color, jolly ranchers are the way to go.
Instead of using hard candies, you can also use melted sugar as well for the gingerbread house windows. Simply add one cup of sugar to a small saucepan over medium heat until melted. You can also add 1/2 cup of light corn syrup to the sugar and melt in the microwave instead of the stovetop.
Once fully melted, add your choice of food coloring and pour into the windows of the baked gingerbread house. You can separate the melted candy into different bowls to add different colors. Let the melted sugar fully dry in the windows before assembling the house.
To help ensure your house will come together, print off some templates online. This will allow you to easily cut out your house by laying down the templates on the dough and using a pizza cutter to cut them out.
For easy cleanup, it is recommended to use parchment paper when making a gingerbread house with stained glass windows. This will prevent any candy from sticking to your baking tray.
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