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Gingerbread cookies on Christmas tree
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Stained Glass Window Cookies Recipe by Shane Smith

You’ll create a lot of excitement with these stained glass window cookies this Christmas! They look incredibly pretty, there super tasty and are easy and fun to make. They would make the perfect stocking filler and also lovely to hang as decorations on your tree. Get the kids involved and happy baking.

Makes 10-15

Ingredients:

– 175g butter, softened
– 100g caster sugar
– 225g plain flour
– A few drops of vanilla essence
– 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
– 1/4 teaspoon mixed spice
– About 20 boiled sweets (different colours)
– White fondant or white chocolate to decorate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Line two baking sheets with non stick parchment paper. You will need a large star or other festive Christmas cutters.
2. Measure the butter sugar and vanilla into a bowl and using a wooden spoon, beat until smooth. Add the flour and spices and bring the dough together by hand.
3. Roll out on a lightly floured work surface until the dough is about 0.5cm thick. Use your large cutter to cut out the shapes. If you have a small version of your chosen cutter use this to cut the middle out of each shape, otherwise do it by hand, leaving about 1cm of biscuit around the edge.
4. Make holes with a cocktail skewer before baking if you want to thread ribbon through the top and hang them.
5. Arrange on the baking sheets.
6. Separate the boiled sweets into their colours and put them in plastic bags.
7. Crush using a rolling pin until they’re fine grains, and sprinkle these in the middle of each biscuit.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes or until the biscuits are a pale golden brown colour and the sweets inside them have melted.
9. Leave to stand on the trays for about 5 minutes to cool slightly, then carefully transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely and firm up.
10. Decorate with meted white chocolate or fondant when cooled. Enjoy!

Gingerbread cookies on Christmas tree

RECIPE BY SHANE SMITH OF FALLON AND BYRNE

Dine in Dublin Shane Smith from Lavey in Co. Cavan has extensive national and  international experience within the Hotel, Restaurant and Confectionery  industry. He started working as a chef at the age of 16 and trained in  Killybegs Tourism College, Donegal.

He has worked with some of the most talented chefs in Ireland and  abroad where he gained the experience to run many pastry sections in  high end establishments, including Knockranny House hotel Westport,  The 5* G Hotel in Galway and currently Head Pastry Chef over the Fallon and Byrne group in Dublin.

Shane is also the In-House Chef for Coole Swan Irish Liquor, doing recipe research and development & to date has published six cookery books with the company.

Most recently Shane has demoed in John Lewis in London and was picked as one of the top 5 chefs in Dublin to demo and cook for the launch of “Dine in Dublin”.

Shane has also recently featured in the Sunday Business Post, Image magazine and has a monthly recipe column in the Anglo Celt newspaper in his home town of Cavan.

ShaneSmith   ShaneSmith
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