Vegan Stained Glass Cookies
These showstopping cookies look like tiny works of art, with jewel-toned candy centers that catch the light like actual stained glass. The secret to making them completely plant-based is a two-part swap: vegan butter stands in for dairy butter, and aquafaba — the liquid from a can of chickpeas — replaces eggs to bind the dough beautifully. The result is a buttery, tender shortbread-style cookie that holds its shape perfectly through cutting, chilling, and baking. Crushed vegan hard candies melt into smooth, glossy panes of color right in the oven, creating that signature translucent window without any animal-derived ingredients. The batch makes 24 cookies, so they're ideal for holiday cookie swaps, gifting, or just filling a platter that makes everyone stop and stare. Just be sure to let them cool fully on the pan — those candy centers stay molten longer than you'd expect, and patience here is genuinely rewarded.
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Learn more →Ingredients
24 servings
For the dough
- 1 cup vegan butter, softened
- ¾ cup organic cane sugar
- 3 tbsp aquafaba
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
For the stained glass
- 4 oz vegan hard candies, assorted colors (about 1 cup crushed)
Instructions
- 1
Sort the hard candies by color into separate zip-top bags. Seal the bags and crush the candies with a rolling pin until they form coarse crumbs, about the size of small pebbles. Set aside by color.
- 2
Beat the softened vegan butter and organic cane sugar together in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer) on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
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