Stained Glass Window Fall Cookies

I decided to try a baking project from Pinterest, for stained glass window fall cookies.  I got some fall themed cookie cutters at the estate sale, so I figured I'd give it a try. The center of the cookie was supposed to also be in the shape of the leaf, but I purchased small, round cutters instead.

I didn't take pics of the prep because it was extremely time consuming and I will NEVER make them again. I ended up combining two separate baking ideas.  One was to colour the dough, which instructions were found at The Hippie Housewife and which referred to a sugar cookie recipe, found HERE.  Then I used the instructions for the 'stained glass' part, found HERE

Mistake #1:  Do NOT use Jolly Ranchers.  I bought them because I prefer their flavour to Life Savers. However, they are extremely sticky and I had a wicked hard time trying to break them up.  Plus the candy shards poked major holes through the baggie so I had to stop to triple bag all of the different colours/flavours.  

Mistake #2:  Doing the candy breaking the day before I decided to bake.  That gave the chips overnight to stick to themselves in a giant sticky conglomerate blob.  

Mistake #3:  Dying the dough.  Every time I make cookie dough I end up having to knead it into submission with my hands.  Dying separate blobs meant having to knead it 10x more.  My hands, wrists and forearms were so sore and cramping.  

Mistake #4:  Not letting the dough warm up a bit after taking it out of the fridge & slicing up the different colours to roll.

Problem #1:  Dough kept cracking and falling apart upon rolling it with the pin.  The colours absolutely refused to fuse and blend. I kept applying flour to make it not stick but that made the dough crack worse.

Problem #2:  Cookie cutting also made the dough split and separate.  

Problem #3:  Candy chips so melded together I could barely break them apart to use.  

Now all of the above is what I encountered before I even baked them.  I did one pan's worth, using the non-stick aluminum foil my friends suggested, and decided I'd wait and see how they came out before I decided to continue on with my frustration....because it wasn't looking good.

I pulled them out of the oven when some of the candy was obviously starting to overcook.  Which, unfortunately, meant that the cookies were way underdone.  Plus there were also some holes around the edges of the stained glass part where the candy hadn't melted so I tried to grab some chips to throw inside the holes, but now that the kitchen was good and warm, it was impossible to pry anything off the sticky chip blob.

I went to remove this one off the foil and it broke right away.  The nonstick foil worked pretty well.

I won't deny that the results look pretty, but the cookies aren't baked all the way through.  

This was what I ended up with, after we each tried one cookie (and one fell on the floor that was quickly snarfed up by my assistant chef, Sagan).  The candy center is so sticky that you will pull a filling out if you try to chew it.  The cookie recipe is definitely a keeper, and I'm not a fan of sugar cookies.   

Lessons learned:

1.  Use life savers & don't break them up till you're ready to use them.

2.  Moisten the dough a little bit as you roll it out so it doesn't crack (I found this out later).

3.  Don't dye the dough.

4.  Bake the cookies halfway first, then add the candy for the last few minutes.

And most importantly, 

5.  Never try this project again.