Filled Christmas Ornament Cookies

This is a labor of love but the end result is worth it. To have a Christmas ornament cookie that is filled with sprinkles is amazing. You'll need to order a few things ahead of time to make these cookies. Isomalt or clear rock candy can be obtained at Amazon.com or at Michael's Stores.

I used an ornament cookie cutter but you can use what ever shape you prefer. The clear window of isomalt would be cute as a snowman's belly or a Christmas tree.

This is my version of a citrus sugar cookie but you can make it a plain sugar cookie. This is only a guide, you can flavor your cookie with any extract or color.

Let's get baking you'll need: bake 350 degrees 10-12 mins

3 cups flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp lemon zest

1 tbsp orange zest

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 cup softened butter (not melted)

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp heavy cream

Large cookie cutter - Ornament pictured

Isomalt (clear)

Edible gold glitter

Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and cream the butter into the sugar. Add the lemon juice and zest. Beat the egg and add it into the wet ingredients. Alternate the dry and the cream until everything is forms a dough.

Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least a half an hour. Yes, you have to allow the dough to chill, otherwise you'll use so much flour rolling them out that you can throw them against the wall and watch them shatter. No one likes a cookie that is rock hard, so just let them chill.

Roll the chilled dough out to 1/4" think (no ruler needed, half the distance from your first knuckle to the tip of your finger).

I cut out ornament cookies and used a small circle cookie cutter

to cut the center of them out.

Don't throw away the center circle you cut out, they make a delicious bite to have with a cup of tea in the afternoon or with a glass of wine. It depends on how your day is going, no one will judge you here, we're all friends.

This cut out center will allow you later to fill with isomalt (melted sugar) and have a peek-a-boo window to see the sprinkles. You knew I had to make a cookie with sprinkles, that's my middle name!

Bake 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are light brown (don't burn the cookies). Let them cool completely before going on to the next step.

Melt the isomalt according to directions. I wanted a golden window so I let it go a little beyond melted to caramel stage for a cool look. CAREFULLY pour the isomalt into a measure cup and quickly fill each circle. The isomalt will start to harden fast, so you have to move quickly. If it gets too hard, re-melt and keep going. NOTE: I make my cookies on non-stick aluminum foil and leave them there so the isolmalt has somewhere to set up. If not, you'll need to put parchment paper under your cookies before pouring the isomalt.

You now have this awesome window in your cookies. You can make window shape cookies and dye the isomalt different colors for a stain glass window effect. This would be pretty to decorate at this stage but NO, I wanted to use sprinkles so let's continue. While your isomalt is still pliable but not completely set, indent with your thumb. Do this to all the cookies. This will give you more space to put the sprinkles.

Time to decorate your ornaments. I used a wet-on-wet royal icing to make a cute wreath with red and green. Translation: I alternated red and green dots and dragged a toothpick thru them until them gently blended together. Sounds fancy but once you get this down, you can make amazingly beautiful cookies.

If you made Christmas trees, using red and gold wet-on-wet would give you an awesome ornaments for your tree. Maybe use red, green, blue and gold for little Christmas lights. I can keep going on and on with the decorations.

Allow the cookies to dry completely before you handle them and fill them. A layer of THICK royal icing holds the cookies together after they are filled.

Put a 1/2 tsp of sprinkles (or around there, no one is measuring) into the indented isomalt and rim the cookie with the thick royal icing (glue). I didn't have to say flip the cookies to the inside did I before you fill them? Put them carefully together, trying to keep the sprinkles in the isomalt window. Allow the filled cookies to dry at least a half an hour before the next step. (I warned you this was a labor of love).

To finish the filled cookies, I make a thin royal icing in yellow and dusted the top of the ornament. What is ornament without sparkle? I added a little edible gold glitter so the cookies will shine and be festive.

This is a specialty cookie that compliments any cookie tray. If you have the patience, by all means make more then a dozen of them. I use them as the accent cookies for my cookie platters.

Show me your filled cookies, what kind of sprinkles did you use? It's all about the SPRINKLES!