Stained glass windows for gingerbread houses

When we made the gingerbread house (see previous post), I tried putting in a stained glass window. I think it fell out before the picture below, but for anyone who wants to try, here's what I did.

They didn't have a microwave, so I used a frying pan. You can make your own hard candy, but it tastes better if you use jolly ranchers (lifesavers would work too). I put several in (different colors), spaced apart, and let them melt most of the way, and mixed them a little. Most likely you don't want to mix them, because they will do that anyway when you pour them out of the pan. If you don't mix them, you'll get something resembling opalescent glass.

You have to be extremely careful not to burn it, especially in a frying pan. A little burning is ok, except it ruins the flavour.

I poured it out onto non-stick aluminum foil. Some of the foil branding made a mark on my window, but otherwise it worked really well. Ideally you want to have a mold to pour into (like a pre-cut hole in the gingerbread for a window) because the stuff is near impossible to cut to size. You don't really want to handle it because it melts and gets sticky. It cools pretty well in the refridgerator.

If you break a piece and want to repair it, touch the two broken edges to the hot frying pan for a couple seconds. After they melt a little, you can re-attach and re-cool. Try to keep this as a last ditch effort (speaking from experience).

If anyone decides to do this, I'd be careful to make sure there's a source of light on the other side of your creation, because otherwise it looks dark (like the outside of a church, not as pretty as when light streams through).