Gingerbread cookies with cut-out stained glass centres, using boiled sweets. Fun to make and they look great! A vegan and dairy-free recipe.
Gingerbread cookies are perhaps my favourite thing to bake at Christmas. I love the smell, the taste and how much fun they are to make and decorate!
In the interest of doing something a little different this year... I've made some gingerbread cookies with a stained glass candy centre.
They may not be great for your teeth but hey, it's Christmas and they taste AMAZING!
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These cookies are great fun to make with kids who will love helping cut out the shapes and place the candy in the centre of the cookies.
They're also easy to make gluten-free by simply substituting the plain flour for plain gluten-free flour.
But not only are these cookies really delicious, they're simply beautiful to look at, especially when they catch the light.
They make very pretty Christmas decorations too. I used a skewer to poke holes in the tops of the cookies and thread them with string so I could hang them on the tree.
📖 Recipe
Vegan Gingerbread Stained Glass Cookies
These vegan gingerbread cookies are dotted with stained glass centres, for a beautiful and deliciously sweet surprise. These biscuits make great gifts.
Ingredients
- 150 g vegan butter / spread
- 120 g dark muscavado sugar
- 60 g golden syrup
- 375 g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground mixed spice
- Boiled candy (check ingredients to make sure they are vegan-friendly)
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, gently melt together the butter, the sugar and the golden syrup.
- In a large mixing bowl, sieve in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices. Pour in the melted butter and sugar and mix until it forms a soft dough. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour.
- Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 170c and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Lightly dust your surface with flour and roll out the dough to about ½ cm thickness. Cut out your cookie shapes with a gap in the middle and transfer to the baking tray. Keep in mind that the gingerbread dough will expand in the oven.
- Place the glass sweets in the gaps of the cookies and bake for approx 10 minutes or until they turn dark golden brown and the sweets have completely melted down.
- Leave the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes before handling them as the melted candy will be very hot and sticky out of the oven.
- Once completely cooled, they're ready to enjoy!
Ash says
Can these be frozen?
Aimee says
Hi Ash. The dough can be frozen but not the finished cookies, due to the boiled sweets. If you want to make in advance, follow the instructions before the boiled sweets are added and then freeze the cut-out cookies. To bake from frozen, continue the instructions but add on a couple of minutes extra baking time.
Oda says
Which consistency does the glass candy have in the end?
Hannah says
About what amount of sweets should I need for this recipe? I’m using Fox’s Galcier Fruits (I’m told they’re vegan) and not sure if one bag will be enough as I’m making three batches of these to give as Christmas gifts. I’m also considering using part molasses and part golden syrup to give them a more traditional gingerbread-y taste (maybe 40g golden syrup and 20g molasses) do you think that would work?
Robin Chesser says
Hello, can these be made non-vegan? If so do I just substitute regular butter?
Aimee says
Sure, it will be the same measurements.
Robin Chesser says
Thank you for the fast response, they are now on my cookie list!