Stained Glass Window Cookies
Makes 25
350g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp salt
100g butter
175g soft brown sugar
1 egg
4tbsp golden syrup
Different coloured fruit-flavoured boiled sweets
Narrow ribbon
Piped or writing icing to decorate
Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Get the kids to mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and salt into a bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs and then stir in the sugar.
Beat together the egg and golden syrup, then mix into the flour mixture to make a smooth dough. The mixture needs to be lightly kneaded – children will love having a go at this.
Give your kids a rolling pin and ask them to crush the sweets in their wrappers. Be prepared for some noise! Sprinkle some flour on a clean work surface and roll out the dough until about 1/2cm thick. Using a selection of cookie cutters, ask the children to carefully cut out shapes from the dough. Transfer to lined baking sheets. Cut out shapes in the centre of each biscuit, making sure you leave a good edge all around the biscuit. Completely fill the hole in each biscuit with crushed boiled sweets.
Get one child to make a hole at the top of each biscuit using a drinking straw, so that you’ll be able to thread a ribbon through it later. Bake for 11-12 minutes until golden.
While the biscuits are still warm, check the holes are still there, otherwise push a straw through again. Do not remove the biscuits from the baking tray until they have cooled as the boiled sweet centre needs to firm up.
Once the sweets have hardened, gently lift the biscuits onto a wire rack with a palette knife to finish cooling.
Children will love decorating the cool biscuits with piped icing. Thread ribbons through the holes to make loops and invite the children to hang them up.
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