Vegan Stained Glass Cookie

♫ Listening to: Ticking Heart by The One AM Radio ♫

Each year, my friends and I host a minimum of 3 super adorbs tea parties. These are some seriously fancy tea parties, and they are ALWAYS themed. We’ve had the following themes (and these are just the ones my terrible memory can think of at this exact moment): purple & black, hearts, rainbows, the witches of west coast, under the sea, halloween, spring, and winter wonderland.

Today, was our Valen-tea Party. And in addition to each person making and bringing something cute, vegan, and valentine-themed, we also decided we would exchange valentines (because we’re children). For the tea party, I brought a pink and lavender root veggie and mung bean noodle salad, where the root veggies were in the shapes of hearts with little XOs on them. But the contribution I was most proud of were my valentines, because I ventured into the realm of isomalt for my very first time.

This recipe makes 12 stained glass window 3D heart cookies.

Dark Chocolate Cookie Dough Ingredients

• 2 cups organic unbleached or whole wheat pastry flour
• ⅓ cup dutch cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons black cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon organic cornstarch*
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon non-aluminum baking powder
• 1 cup vegan butter or margarine (if you avoid soy, buy the soy-free earth balance; otherwise buy the organic whipped earth balance)*
• 1 cup organic sugar*
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ¼ cup nondairy milk

Dark Chocolate Cookie Dough Directions

Sift and whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl: flour, dutch cocoa powder , black cocoa powder , cornstarch, salt, and baking powder.

Mix the vegan butter on a fast speed using a stand mixer or an electric handheld mixer.

Add the sugar and mix for like 5 minutes on high before turning to low.

Add the nondairy milk and vanilla extract while mixing.

Add in the dry ingredients half at a time (to minimize messes), stopping the mixer each time you add dry ingredients.

Mix until incorporated.

Shape the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap or a plastic produce bag to chill for a minimum of 30 minutes (or overnight).

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and remove dough from fridge.

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Roll the dough on a piece of parchment paper or a rolling mat to ¼ inch thickness.

Cut out as many shapes as you can. I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter from this set.

Freeze the cookie dough by slipping your parchment paper or rolling mat onto a cutting board and transferring to the freezer.

Remove from the freezer and transfer 12 of the cookies to the parchment paper lined cookie sheets. These will be the bottom cookies.

Bake for 8-9 minutes, depending how accurate your oven is.

Roll the dough remnants, and this time, when you cut out the shapes, also cut out a smaller shape in the center of the larger shape. You’ll need 12 of these to be the middle cookie, but you can keep making them until all the dough has been used up.

Pink Sugar Cookie Dough Ingredients and Directions

Make a half a batch of my unicorn cookies recipe, but when you get to the part where you’re making the egg replacer (which I only made half an egg replacer, since I was making half a batch of dough), make one alteration to the recipe.

Add red food coloring to the egg replacer. I used a combination of pink Color Garden natural food coloring and TruColor natural food coloring for the shade you see in these pictures. As you can tell, when you’re using all-natural food coloring, you want to make the dough darker than the result you’re going for, since it lightens when it bakes.

Shape the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap or a plastic produce bag to chill for a minimum of 30 minutes (or overnight).

Roll the dough on a piece of parchment paper or a rolling mat to ¼ inch thickness.

Cut out as many shapes as you can. I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter from this set. As you cut out the shapes, also cut out a smaller shape in the center of the larger shape. You’ll need 12 of these, but you can keep making them until all the dough has been used up.

Freeze the cookie dough by slipping your parchment paper or rolling mat onto a cutting board and transferring to the freezer.

Remove from the freezer and transfer 12 of the cookies to each parchment paper lined cookie sheet. You need at least one tray of 12 cookies to be the top cookies, so you have an extra step to do for those.

Fill the holes in the center of the cookies with isomalt. I used this isomalt because it’s labeled as being vegan. Carefully use a small spoon or funnel, making sure none of the isomalt sticks to the cookie dough.

Bake for 8-9 minutes, or until all of the isomalt has melted completely.

Roll the dough remnants, and repeat until all the dough has been used up. You can see in my pictures that I made some of the black hearts with isomalt as well. I don’t recommend this. When the isomalt melts, it takes some of the cookie dough with it, and the stained glass windows don’t look nice with black cookie crumbs in them.

Assembly and Decorating Ingredients

• ¼ cup vegan chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons vegan sprinkles

Assembly and Decorating Directions

Melt the vegan chocolate chips in the microwave for 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds.

Glue the middle layer to the bottom layer using the melted chocolate as your glue.

Fill the hole with vegan sprinkles. I used a combination of 3 different sprinkles for mine: pink hearts from Fancy Sprinkles, and pink and white sprinkles from Sweets & Treats.

Glue the top cookie (the one with the isomalt window) onto the top using the melted chocolate.

Here’s a video of how I made these cute cookies in case my photos and description are unclear. You can also feel free to message me or leave a comment here if you have any questions.

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* I use mostly organic ingredients when I cook, but I realize that not everyone has the disposable income to purchase all organic ingredients. Therefore, I only specify organic on the ingredients that really matter - when buying the organic version is the only way to ensure that the item is vegan.