Edible Christmas Ornaments ~ cooking hot au

Edible Christmas Ornaments...These ornaments are rather neat, if you have any hard candy around the house. I had some candy canes, and so I used those. But, if you have any other hard candy, such as jolly ranchers, you can use that instead. The ornament will have a stained glass look. This is a cute idea to do with children...

You can use whatever cookie cutters you like, as long as they are not plastic. Christmas cookie cutters are ideal. They are really easy to make and the kids can break the candies and choose their favorite cookie cutter. Just make sure they don't touch the hot pan...its best if an adult does the rest. I have to say that I made these a couple of times and had different results. I wanted to keep the red and white theme...in order to achieve that, I had to watch the actual baking time. The first time, I baked the candy ornament until the candy canes just melted. This kept the red and white showing throughout. The second time, I baked it a couple of minutes longer and the candy turned pink and clear. You can peek through the oven door to see how you want your ornament to look like and pull the pan out. Just make sure the candy doesn't boil over, then you will have a mess. They are cute tied with a ribbon and hung on the tree...

We recently had some snow here in Montana and -20 degs weather! So, I took advantage of the snow and went out to hang the ornaments on a real live Christmas tree. As you can see, the needles were quite frosted from the really, really cold weather. I snapped a few pictures and ran in the house to defrost:)... Hope you enjoy...

Tip: Don't forget to spray the inside of the ornament with oil...that is very important!
If the ornament cracks after taking it out of the cookie cutter, place it back in the cutter. You can then put it back in the warm oven for a little bit until it seals back together....

You will need:adapted from here
Hard candy
oil
aluminum foil or silpat
ribbon
cookie cutters

Directions:

If using aluminum foil:
1. Line the bottom and up the sides of the cookie cutters with aluminum foil. Make sure the bottom lays flat with no creases.
2. Lightly spray a cookie sheet and the insides of the cutters with oil. Place them slightly apart on the cookie sheet.

If using silpat:
1. Oil the inside of the cutters well, making sure you get all the nooks. Place them on the silpat lined cookie sheet.

1. Unwrap the hard candy and place in a single layer inside each cookie cutter. If using candy cane, break in smaller pieces. I noticed that the smaller pieces ended up mixing into a pink color. So, if you want your red and white lines to not mix, I suggest you break the candy cane pieces into larger pieces, not so finely crushed.

2. For a solid color ornament, use a layer of one color candy. For a stained glass effect, crush several colors, mix, and place in a single layer. The colors will blend when the candy melts.
3. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 7-10 minutes until the candy melts.
Make sure you watch it at the end so that it doesn't boil over. My white and red candy cane ornament took about 7 minutes ...while the clear pink one took 8-9 minutes.
4. Use oven mitts to remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Immediately add candy sprinkles on the top of each Christmas ornament, if desired.
5. Cool 1-2 minutes, then use a toothpick to carefully poke a hole through the top of each ornament. If the toothpick sticks to the candy, wait a bit more and try again. Don't let it cool too much as it will harden and you won't be able to poke a hole. But, in case that happens, you can always put the pan back in the oven for a few seconds or so. The candy will melt again and you can try again.

6. Cool completely. I left mine until it was almost cool to handle and then pushed it out of the cookie cutter.
Peel off the foil and carefully remove each ornament from the foil. If you were using the silpat method, some candy might have leaked from the cutters...quite normal. Break the candy that has collected on the outside of the ornament first...and then push the ornament out from the cookie cutter, being careful.

7. Hang with a narrow ribbon.