Stained Glass Candy

Stained glass candy is an old fashioned Christmas candy that I first had when I was in the first grade. I only know that because I remember my teacher handing it out to all of us as a Christmas gift to take home. It was such a tasty little treat and it stuck out in my memory for so long! I remember talking to a friend about it when I was in high school and she happened to have a recipe for it and I’ve been making it ever since!

It’s a basic hard candy recipe but the fun Christmas colors and cinnamon and spearmint flavors make it so festive! And getting to smash the candy at the end to make the “glass” is so much fun for the little ones!

This stained glass candy also makes a great little gift to hand out to loved ones! You can fill little jars or baggies and hand them out for Christmas treats!

Print Recipe

5 from 5 votes

Stained Glass Candy

Servings: 2 lbs

Author: Coco and Ash

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 3 and 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 tbsp food coloring
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp flavored oil (I use cinnamon or spearmint)

Instructions

• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and sift powdered sugar all over the entire pan. Set aside
• In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, add the water, white sugar, and corn syrup. Heat over medium heat while stirring until sugar is dissolved. 
• Once the sugar is dissolved, insert a candy thermometer and let the mixture come to a boil. Do not stir while the mixture is boiling. (Make sure that the candy thermometer is not touching the bottom of the pan)
• Let the mixture boil undisturbed until the thermometer reaches 300 degrees. 
• Remove the pan from the heat and add in the food coloring and flavoring. Stir until combined. 
• Pour the candy mixture onto the pan with the powdered sugar. Let the candy completely cool for at least one hour. (You can tilt the pan to spread out the candy but make sure you are wearing good oven mitts!)
• Once the candy has completely set and cooled for an hour, take a meat mallet and hit the candy all over to create cracked stained glass pieces. 
• Shake off excess sugar and store in a sealed container. 

Notes

This recipe makes enough for one flavor. I usually make 2 batches at the same time in 2 separate pots to make both cinnamon and spearmint flavors. 

 

I like to set my sheet pans on top of a heat-resistant trivet. The pans will get extremely hot once you pour the candy on them. 

 

While this is a fun recipe for kids to help with, hot sugar can be very dangerous. I only let my children help at the beginning (adding the room temp ingredients to the pan) and at the end with cracking the candy. (That's their favorite part!)

 

Flavored OIL is different from extracts. It is much stronger. If you cannot find the oils, you can substitute extract but use 2 tsp instead of just 1. 

 

Click here for a link to the oils I use. 

 

Click here to see the candy thermometer that I use.