We didn’t have stained glass cookies for dinner, we had pizza and salad.

I used to make stained glass cookies with my mom when I was a kid, and it remains a magical experience. Basically, you roll out sugar cookies, punch holes in their centers, crush hard candy, put the candy bits in the holes and bake. When they cool down after baking you are left with a delightful, and tasty, stained glass window in your cookie.

I think that Real Simple’s Recipe is foolproof, and pretty good taste-wise for a cookie that might ordinarily be considered strictly decorative. The only thing I would add, is that you don’t want the cookie to stained glass ratio to be more than 70/30, or else the cookie is overcooked by the time the candy is melted.

The process is great for kids and adults alike. Kids will enjoy sorting the candies by color and then smashing them into bits with a mallet or hammer. Filling the cookie centers with candy dust, and then peeking in the oven to watch as they melt, is pretty much irresistible. Click on the photos below to see every step in action.