Cardamom-Spiced Stained Glass Cookies

This past weekend I decorated my first tree, in my first house, just a few days after hosting my first Thanksgiving around my first official dining room table.  Who knew that 35 had so many firsts?  

To be fair, I decorated the tree at the insistence of my friend Suzonne who has much more reverence for tradition that I usually do, and thank goodness for it!  Sometimes it takes a friend’s insistence to make things happen… (and she came over with her extra Christmas tree so that didn’t hurt one bit!).  

Where I do have holiday tradition reverence is in the kitchen, where every winter I find myself making family recipes that make Christmas feel like Christmas no matter where I am.  Sure, there’s my dad’s Sweet Potato Pie that I won’t stop yammering on about, or my mom’s Peanut Butter Balls that I crave each December, but this year I’m taking it back with a spiced sugar cookie with a candy center that I used to make when I was a kiddo.  In my mind I might have made these cookies while trying to earn some sort of Girl Scout badge… that’s how far back these classic cookies date for me.  I surely made them with my mom and sister, and this holiday season I’m all about the nostalgia, with a spiced flare. 

Here’s how these cookies start:

This post is in partnership with Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening, which made these cookies tender on the inside and golden crisp along the edges.  This is my family’s old-school cookie baking and I’m embracing the tradition.  

Also gather brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, corn syrup for moisture and pliability, plenty of cardamom spice, flour and leavening.  

Brown sugar and granulated sugar are creamed to combined with Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening and (baker’s tip!) cardamom spice.  

Adding the spice to the shortening will help disperse the flavor throughout the cookie creating a fragrant and boldly spiced cookie.  Much more flavorful than adding the spice along with the dry ingredients.  I love the taste of cardamom, but you could use any sort of spice that feels like a holiday tradition to you:  cinnamon, nutmeg, a pinch of cloves, allspice… do whatcha feel! 

Once the sugar and spice are creamed with the shortening, add the eggs and beat until glossy and well combined.  

The flour, salt, and leavening are added all at once.  

And mixed until soft and well-combined.  

The dough is soft and tender.  It’s a little sticky to start which means it just needs some quality time in the refrigerator to chill and come together.

The dough is divided in half and each piece is wrapped in wax paper. 

From here, a few things could happen:

•  The dough can be placed in the refrigerator to chill for about 2 hours before rolling out and baking.

•  The dough can be placed in the freezer for up to a month if you want to make holiday cookies closer to the Christmas holiday like no sweat… like you planned it all along because you did. 

I roll these cookies our on a well-floured sheet of parchment paper.  

We’re hoping for less mess and easy to work with cookie shapes.   

The top of the chilled dough is floured and another piece of parchment is placed over it before rolling out to a 1/4-inch thickness. 

Keeping the dough a good thickness will make the shapes easier to cut and remove from the parchment.  

Thick, chilled cookie dough + well-floured cookie cutters + a parchment lined baking sheet ready to go.    

I used smaller cookie cutters to create spaces in each cookie for the stained glass candy center. 

The cookies are baked halfway to done, removed from the oven and sprinkled with crushed hard candy.  

See?  

Back to the oven where the cookies will crisp to juuust golden and the candy will melt to glass.  

It’s like magic and really very satisfying.  

Boxed and shared.  That’s how these cookies are best enjoyed… with just a few set aside for your own morning coffee.

Happy Holidays!

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This post is in partnership with Crisco with photographs by Jon Melendez.