Stained Glass Cookies

Directions

1. Working in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and salt together at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and beat in the vanilla. Add the flour all at once and pulse the mixer on and off a few times to start blending it in.
2. With the mixer on the lowest speed, continue to mix in the flour, scraping the bowl as necessary, until you have what look like curds. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and finish blending the dough by pulling off small hunks of it and pushing each hunk across the work surface with the heel of your hand. Then gather the smooth dough into a ball, divide it in half and press each half into a disk.
3. Working with one piece of dough at a time, roll the dough between sheets of parchment or wax paper to a thickness of about 1/8-inch; thinner is better than thicker here. Slide the paper-sandwiched dough onto a baking sheet or cutting board (you can stack the pieces of dough) and freeze for at least 1 hour. (The dough can be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months.)
4. To cut out the cookies, I use a 2-inch round cutter—though you can cut these into any shape and size you want—and, to make the windows, a 1/4-inch pastry tip. Set these aside. Beat the egg with a splash of cold water and set this aside as well.
5. Remove one piece of dough from the freezer and cut out cookies. As you cut them, place them on the lined baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Use the pastry tip to cut out one or more windows in each cookie. Fill the cutouts with crushed candy, keeping the candy level with the cookie. (After I cut out the windows with the small end of the pastry tip and clean away the little plugs of dough, I insert the tip in each hole and use it as a funnel to fill the cutouts with the candy—it’s a neat trick.) Sprinkle 2 or 3 seeds onto the candy in each window, if you’re using them. Using a pastry brush, brush the dough very lightly with the egg wash, avoiding the candy. If you’re using herbs, “paste” them onto the dough. Finally, lightly sprinkle the cookies with sugar. (Save the dough scraps to combine with the scraps from the other piece of dough.)
6. Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or until the cookies are almost firm and the candy has melted but not turned brown. You’ll want to bake these longer because the cookie part will be pale, but resist. (I’ve over-baked them so that every candy color went to brown. They weren’t as attractive as they might have been, though the golden cookies were still good.) Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and allow the cookies to cool until the candy hardens, then lift them off the sheet with an offset spatula and put on a rack. Repeat with the remaining dough: Gather the scraps together, re-roll them, chill, and make more cookies, cooling the baking sheet before using it.
7. To serve, put these on a white or clear glass plate so that their colors sparkle. These will keep for 1 day in a cool, dry place. Bonne Idée: Stained Glass Cookie Decorations: If you’d like to use these cookies as ornaments for a Christmas tree, cut the cutouts larger and, right before you slide them into the oven, poke a small hole in the top of each cookie—I use a drinking straw to do this—so that you’ll be able to run ribbons through the baked cookies. If you make plain cookies, they will keep for about 4 days—it’s the candy that has a tendency to turn soft and sticky.