Ingredients
- What You Will Need:
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 2 Teaspoons Almond Extract
- Additional Powdered sugar, for rolling out the dough
- Assorted Jolly Rancher Candies
- Baking sheet
- Hand mixer
- Parchment paper
- Cookie cutters*
Preparation
Step 1
In choosing the shapes and sizes of the cookie cutters, consider how they might fit inside each other; however, there is no harm in hand cutting each cookie, if you like.
In a large bowl and using your hand mixer, combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Next, add the milk, egg, and almond extract, and mix thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, mix your dry ingredients with a fork.
The final step is to, in thirds, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl.
Knead the last portion by hand.
Allow the dough to chill for at least an hour before working with it, longer for more humid climates.
Because the air contains a lot of moisture in Florida (even in winter), the butter in the dough melts at a faster pace, which will eventually cause the cookies to spread during baking.
Roll out the dough on a large surface that has been prepped with powdered sugar
No smaller than 1/8” thickness.
Punch out the outside shape (largest cookie cutter) and place the cookie on the parchment covered baking sheet.
After cutting enough cookies to fill the sheet, cut the small, inside shapes from each.
Due to cutting out large portions of the middle in each cookie, this recipe yielded over 3 dozen cookies.
Now to work with the Jolly Ranchers!
To incorporate the candies, placing the whole candies was effective.
If the cookies are large (the size of CDs), you may nned 3 candies in each middle space.
Bake the cookies for 7-9 minutes in an oven that has been preheated to 375º.
Once the edges of the cookies begin to brown, remove from the oven.
Let the cookies dry for at least 20 minutes before removing from the baking sheet, and store in a cool and dry place before wrapping up for gifts.