Christmas Cookie Week Day 1 - Window Cookies

Now originally, I was not going to bug you (much) during this holiday season, but then a good friend of mine suggested I put up some cookie recipes! Which was a fantastic idea.... So I took that idea and raised it with an entire week's worth of cookie time! 

Are you as excited as me? 

I promise by the end of it you'll be wearing sweat pants and cursing the deliciousness of the cookie. But hey, it's the holidays. Be jolly. 

Now first up is one of my dad's favorite cookies.... Window Cookies! Caution these cookies are ridiculously sweet. You have been warned.

Alright so these will probably be the simplest cookies I show you, good to start simple right? And so the adventure begins...

Told ya it's simple. Just sugar cookie dough and lifesavers... Now, by all means, you can make the sugar cookie dough from scratch if you are feeling extra bold.

Next, bust up the lifesavers, you are going to want some little pieces so try not to leave huge chucks... but don't utterly destroy them either. 

 Spray your pans so nothing sticks, of course. 

 Now the first attempt at these cookies didn't turn out, but this is how I did the first batch. I just cut directly from the tube of delicious and then removed areas in the cookie for the "window".

 Fill the window with the colored goods...

till you get everything all wonderful and awesome looking. The tree in the middle there was my pride and joy. So cute.  You then put these in the oven (350) for 6 minutes or so. 

 But after they cooked, those sugar cookies puffed up and engulfed the window. My poor majestic tree looked more like a sapling being smothered by a pudgy white mass. Though it's still so cute.

 Some worked though! See! The window!

 

So after that rather dismal looking batch, I went back and just rolled out some of the dough very thin and shaped it into a circle.  Leaving probably about 5 inches in diameter. It was ridiculously large.  But it worked!

All together! With some more patience and practice you could probably make some pretty awesome mosaic type patterns! Fun for the whole family! Just make sure not to let the sugar burn, Then you'll lose the vibrant colors and get charcoal black. Not that awesome.

Another plus about making these cookies is you'll for sure have some left-over lifesavers that you'll have to eat. Can't go throwing away good candy!

These cookies are so much fun to make, and since they are so easy, they are a stress free way to make yummy cookies during this most stressful time.

Speaking of stressful, just 7 days til Christmas. Have you done all your shopping yet?

Check back tomorrow for Day 2 of Cookies!