These cookies take a bit of work, but in the end, they are beautiful (and really, really tasty!) Make them as a gift. Your friends will appreciate the effort. Or make them as Christmas tree decorations – just pierce the top of the cookie with a hole before baking and thread with small ribbon after they have cooled. Placed in front of a Christmas light, these really shine. PLUS you can eat them on New Years Day (and remember – they are really, really tasty)

To make a stained glass cookie, you need a cookie dough that doesn’t spread while baking. If the dough spreads, it will obliterate the stained glass window in the middle. I tried to refine our brown sugar cookie recipe by adding more gf flour and using shortening instead of butter, but by the time I got the texture right, the cookie itself was dry and powdery. Then I remembered a recipe I’d seen on Simple Gluten Free Kitchen for linzer cookies and I decided to try it. It worked great! The dough rolled out nicely, didn’t spread too much, and the result is a mild almond and vanilla wafer. Besides stained glass cookies, these would be great glazed or sandwiched with jam or Nutella or dipped in chocolate for a dessert fondu.

Looking for gluten free holiday recipes? You might also enjoy these other recipes:

gfandme’s best Thanksgiving recipes

Christmas eve dessert (Danish Apple Cake)

almond roca

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