A fun and tasty way to combine messy play with cooking. Depending what time of year it is you can choose your shape to make. These seasonal biscuits look so pretty with the sweets in the middle of each one.


Ingredients - makes 25-30:

• 200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 125g golden caster sugar
• 250g plain flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• A pinch each of ground cinnamon, ground ginger
• & ground black pepper
• 25-30 coloured boiled sweets like Fox’s Glacier Fruits

Equipment:
Star cookie cutters in two sizes - one to cut the main shape, and one for the hole inside.

How to make Stained Glass Cookies

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3. Line three baking trays with parchment
2. Mix the butter and sugar by hand until smooth.
3. Add the flour & spices then mix it together using your hands.
4. Lightly flour a work surface and, using a floured pin, roll the dough out to about 5mm thick.
5. Cut your large stars and transfer to the baking trays. Then cut out the centres using the smaller cutter, or by hand. 
6. Be sure to leave about 1cm of biscuit all around the hole, otherwise your finished biscuits will be too fragile to hang. Continue until all the dough is used up.
7. Place a sweet in the centre of each biscuit, and then pierce a hole in the top of each using a straw.
8. Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes. 
9. The biscuits - and sweet centres - will harden once they’re out of the oven, so don’t worry if they look a bit squidgy.

Recipe from The Codsall Hive