3 Ways to Make Gingerbread House Windows – No Candy Thermometer Required!

One of our family’s annual Christmas traditions is making a gingerbread house – but not just any gingerbread house. We have fun dreaming up new designs every year, and spend about a week each holiday season bringing it to life one evening at a time.

The second year we made a gingerbread house from scratch, I thought it was time to learn how to make stained glass windows. There are many ways to make them, and over the years I’ve tried several. Many of the techniques can be quite complicated, but here are three that require almost no skill.

A few notes about safety & other things before you begin:

Melted sugar is EXTREMELY hot and will stick to the skin, causing severe burns. While I love cooking with my kids, I don’t allow them in the kitchen when I’m making candied windows for both their safety and mine.
Watch everything carefully while cooking. Sugar goes from “ready” to “burned” very quickly. NEVER leave it unattended.
Cut windows out of your gingerbread BEFORE you bake it. It’s hard to cut crisp, cooked gingerbread without breaking it.
Don’t expect clear white glass. That requires lots of skill and a candy thermometer. You can expect that your glass using these techniques will be amber-colored. You can color it further by stirring in regular food coloring after your sugar is melted, but before you pour the glass.
If your cookware or utensils are coated in hard sugar when you’re done, don’t worry! Fill them with hot water and soak them overnight. The sugar will dissolve.
Choose an LED light for the inside of your gingerbread house. The sugar and icing can melt if you use a bulb that emits heat!

3 Ways to Make Sugar Glass Gingerbread House Windows

MELTED CANDY – This is THE EASIEST way to make gingerbread house windows.

Ingredients/Supplies:

Hard Candy (Jolly Ranchers, Lifesavers, Butterscotch candies) – keep in mind the opacity and stickiness will be the same after making the windows, so choose candies that have the color/transparency/texture you’d like on your finished product
Parchment Paper or Aluminum Foil
Ziploc Bag

Instructions:

Place your (already baked) gingerbread face up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
Place hard candies in a Ziploc bag and use a rolling pin or meat mallet to crush them.
Sprinkle the pieces into the window opening. Use more than you think you’ll need because they’ll melt down during the baking process.
Place in a 350-degree oven for about 5 minutes. Watch it closely – you may need more or less time.
The windows are done when the surface of the glass is smooth, with no lumps.
Remove from oven and allow to cool before removing it from the parchment-lined baking sheet.

MELTED SUGAR (STOVETOP) – This isn’t my preferred method but there are no special tools and one ingredient – SUGAR! You’ve got everything you need to make this.

Ingredients/Supplies:

1 cup sugar
Saucepan
Wooden or metal spoon for stirring (avoid plastic)
Food coloring (if desired)
Parchment paper or aluminum foil

Instructions:

Place your (already baked) gingerbread FACE UP on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Place 1 cup of sugar in saucepan.
Stir over medium heat until melted. Sugar will be a moderately deep amber color when it is all melted.
Remove from heat, stir in food coloring (if desired).
Carefully and quickly pour into window openings. As it cools and hardens it will not pour as evenly. Tip: You do not need to fill the opening to the top. If it is too thick, light won’t shine through.
Allow to cool before removing from the parchment-lined baking sheet.

MICROWAVE – Easy peasy! This is my go-to method.

Ingredients/Supplies:

1 cup sugar
½ cup Karo (corn) syrup
Large Pyrex or other microwave-safe glass measuring cup WITH HANDLE
Wooden or metal spoon for stirring (avoid plastic)
Parchment paper or aluminum foil
Food coloring (if desired)

Instructions:

Place your (already baked) gingerbread FACE UP on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Mix together sugar and Karo syrup in large Pyrex measuring cup with handle.
Place in microwave for 5 minutes.*
Remove from microwave using the handle and stir. Continue microwaving in 30-second increments until it is a light amber color.*
Stir in food coloring (if desired).
Pour into window openings.
Allow to cool before removing from parchment.

*Microwave wattage and performance vary widely. Watch your sugar closely – once I did this and ended up with black sludge that was smoking wildly because I wasn’t paying attention and over-did it. It’s a miracle nothing broke and nobody was burned.