A new idea for teatime cookies

I've spent many of my summer weekends testing treats for a cookbook of vintage Christmas recipes I'm working on, and I've also ended up with lots of leftover bits, like sugar cookie dough and egg nog. I learned that egg nog makes good coffee creamer (I hate to see anything go to waste!), and the sugar cookie dough inspired me to try something new with my teapot cookie cutters.

So this isn't really a recipe as much as a good old-fashioned technique. Basically, you use one cookie cutter to cut out your desired shape, then you use a smaller cookie cutter in the interior of your cookie, and in that space, you use a place a small (or crushed) candy, like a Life Saver. The candy melts and fills the space, and then it re-hardens once the cookie cools. (So if you're like me and have a crown, eat these carefully!) I've learned to bake just a single cookie first to make sure I have the right amount of candy inside, and then I know how much it will take to fill up the others.

Here are some of the cookie samples I made for the Christmas cookbook, and I used a medium-sized star cookie cutter, about 3-1/2 inches, with a 1-3/4 inch cutout. A whole Life Savers candy fit perfectly in the space and didn't even have to be crushed. The interiors look like jam here, but they're simply melted and re-hardened Life Savers. It's a fun vintage technique that I enjoyed experimenting with, and I can see all sorts of possibilities for these cookies!