Do you put a whole sweet in, or does it depend on the size of the hole? Do you part-bake the gingerbread first? TIA

It's on my list of things to make, in the Christymas Book of Things to Make and Do.

Got sleeping baby on me so can't check but pretty sure you make a hole slightly bigger than the sweet and put the sweet in middle of uncooked shape. 12mins.

there is a kit for them in tesco- stained glass biscuits. its by dr oetker and i think its £2.99 for a kit to make 6 or 8 biscuits.

Jewel Biscuits

Delicious and colourful biscuits or cookies - the 'jewels' are optional but very bright and special - makes about 25 medium (3 inch/9cm) biscuits.

150g/5oz/three quarter cup caster sugar

150g/5 oz/three quarter cup vegan margarine

5 tablespoons of soya milk

300g/10 oz/1and a half cups of plain flour

teaspoon vanilla extract (or according to pack instructions)

boiled sweets - different colours is good

Preheat oven to 200C/400F and grease baking sheets. Cream together the sugar and marg. Mix in the soya milk and vanilla and then the flour. The mixing of the flour is best done with your hands. You should have a workable dough (add more flour if it's too wet or more soya milk if too dry and doesn't hold together well). Roll out on a floured board (to just under 1 cm thick) and cut into shapes - cutters in festive shaped such as stars, trees and angels are lovely but plain round ones are effective too - you can use a drinking glass if you don't have cutters. Lay on baking sheets. Make a hole in the middle of each biscuit - plain round, diamonds, stars - whatever you like, as long as it is big enough for your sweet! Place a sweet in each hole. Bake for about 10 minutes for soft bake cookies or a little longer for dryer, crunchy ones. The sweets will melt down and fill the hole in the oven and then reset once cool.

If you want these for tree decoration ONLY you can prelong their life by replacing the sugar in the recipe with salt and adding a couple of tablespoons of PVA glue to the mix (do not eat after doing this option!!) Prior to baking make a small hole in the top with a drinking straw - once cooked and cooled you can thread ribbons through for hanging.

I part-bake the gingerbread, about 10 mins,and put a whole boiled sweet in the middle, and bake for another 10 mins.

We started with one of those kits with a Christmas tree with hole-in-middle cutter, a few years ago, and still use the cutter from that.

I found it most effective if I crushed the boiled sweet first, but it was a PITA.

I too found crushing them works best. wrap in clingfilm then in bag and hit with rolling pin...it was the bit the kids liked best!

Also kids can then put different clours into one stained glass bit IYSWIM.

Thanks everyone! I kind of remember from last year the sweets boiling over on to the biscuits, so will try crushing them first tonight.

We have tried every year for the past 11 years and have burnt them every time! 12th time lucky!

OK, this year we will Bang and Crush!

Yhough the whole sweet worked fine, but the crushing will be popular, I'm sure.

does anyone know how long these keep for? i intend making them and putting them into little cellophane bags but would like to know how far in advance i can make them. also i dont like vanilla so do you think i could make mixed spice ones instead?

Well, half the ones we made today have already been eaten

Really easy. Just made biscuits, popped the sweet in the middle and voila! They look AMAZING (and taste nice too)! I put orange extract in them cos I asked dd vanilla or orange... Though the recipe I had said mixed spice (and cornflour and oh, I can't remember)

we did

100g butter
100g caster sugar
200g flour
1 egg
heat butter on hob, add into bowl with sugar. add egg, orange, and mix it. make the dough. add more flour cos it's too sticky. cut them out. 180degrees for about fifteen mins. Yum.

Don't think they would keep very long - a few days at most. Mixed spice tastes nice but I found the biscuits look better without - which you might want to consider if they are for a gift.