Yippee! It's about that time of the year to roll out the Christmas tree and entreat the kitchen with your cookie recipe to build the traditional gingerbread house with stained glass windows. Every year, adults and kids get excited when it's time to make Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses. These edible houses range from the spectacular to the simple. You can make your next gingerbread house more memorable by adding stained glass windows instead of just icing them in.
There are about five ways to make gingerbread house windows but classic stained glass windows are more aesthetically pleasing, easier to make, and can cost about $7 on Amazon. No food coloring is needed and no extensive cook time is required. Just follow the step-by-step process in the tutorial down below to craft glinting gingerbread house stained glass windows in minutes.
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Things You'll Need
Cookie sheet
Parchment paper
Hard candy, various colors
Resealable bags
Towel
Mallet or hammer
Take the Initial Steps
1. Preheat and prepare
It's prep time! Preheat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit. Then, line a flat cookie sheet with parchment paper so the melted candy windows won't stick to it.
2. Put candies in bags
Now do this: unwrap each of the hard candies and separate them into zip lock bags by color. You can either use different colors from the pack of hard candy or just use your favorite ones.
Tip
Lifesavers and Jolly Ranchers are some of your best bets when choosing a hard candy for your gingerbread house stained glass windows. Jolly ranchers are hardcore hard candies that have superior fruit flavor options. Lifesavers, on the other hand, are not as hard so they crunch easily.
3. Remove trapped air
DO NOT forget this step. Close each bag until there's only a little opening left, and carefully squeeze the air out of the bag. Once the air is gone, close the bags the rest of the way. (This way the bags won't pop when you start to crush the candy.)
Start the Real Work
1. Make crushed candies
Getting excited yet? Fold the bag of candy into a towel or cloth. Hit the wrapped bag with a mallet or rolling pin to crush the candy. You can either crush it into small chunks or into candy powder.
2. Build the windows
You're almost there! Place the pre-cooked gingerbread walls with the cutout spaces for windows on the prepared cookie sheet. Take a few chunks of candy or a pinch of candy powder in the colors you want and put them in the window spaces. You can use a toothpick to swirl the colors together.
3. Heat and cool
Finally. Put the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 7 and 10 minutes or until the candy melts. Check the cookie sheet at about 8 minutes to ensure the candy is melting. Take it out of the oven and allow the melted candy to cool and solidify. into sparkling stained glass windows.
Tip
Instead of using hard candy for the windows, you can tear up gum drops or gummy bears and worms into little pieces and place them in the window spaces.
You can also melt colored sugar or use corn syrup for the stained glass windows instead of candy.
Warning
You can use a hammer to crush the hard candy. But for safety and to avoid ruining your countertop, place a piece of plywood -- or a thick wooden cutting board -- on the floor and cover your resealable bag well. Hit the bag gently to avoid breaking it.
Enjoy the Process
Remember that building gingerbread house stained glass windows can be as daunting as constructing real house windows, especially for a first-timer. However, making stained glass windows is as fun as dying easter eggs. So, if your windows don't come out perfectly, don't get worked up. Besides, there's a lot that can go wrong when working with candies and gingerbread dough. So, enjoy the process and experiment as you go.