How to Make Stained Glass Windows for a Gingerbread House

Every year, adults and kids get excited when it's time to start making the annual 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 to your windows instead of just icing them in. It's incredibly simple to make stained glass windows and can cost less than one dollar.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Cookie sheet
• Parchment paper
• Hard candy, like Jolly Ranchers or Life Savers
• Zip lock bags
• Towel
• Hammer

1. Preheat the oven at 325 degrees F. Next, line a flat cookie sheet with parchment paper so the melted candy windows won't stick to it.

2. Unwrap each of the hard candies and separate them into zip lock bags according to their colors. You can either use every color in the pack of hard candy or just use your favorite colors.

3. 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.)

4. Fold the bag of candy into a towel or cloth. Hit the wrapped bag to crush the candy. You can either crush it into small chunks or into candy powder.

5. Place the pre-cooked gingerbread walls with the cut out 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.

6. Put the cookie sheet in the oven and bake for between 7 and 10 minutes or until the candy is melted. Take out of the oven and allow to cool before removing the gingerbread. Once cooled, the walls with stained glass windows are ready to use.

Tips & Warnings

• Instead of using hard candy for the windows, you can tear up gum drops or gummy bears and worms into little pieces and place in the window spaces. You can also melt colored sugar for the stained glass windows instead of candy.

References

• CANDY. It makes for excellent stained glass