One Night Valentine’s Cookie Challenge
There was one thing that absolutely blew Kevin and I away when we were in America – how into Valentine’s Day they are! Even in the first weeks of January lots of the stores we visited were decked out in red and pink decorations, the shelves packed with every love-themed item you could imagine (plus even more). You could buy bags of pink M&Ms, pink wrapped Reese’s peanut butter cups, heart shaped Butterfingers (officially my favourite American lolly)… everything was Valentines themed.
Yes it’s a little commercial, but I liked the idea that the whole country stops and makes a fuss of love for one day a year – not just romantic love, but everyone from best friends to parents. It’s so different to how things are here, where all you really get is cards popping up on shelves and florists telling you can “pre-order romance” if you buy flowers (true story, I saw that on a sign on the bus this morning!) – I’d be quite happy for Valentine’s Day to really take off in New Zealand.
So in honour of the upcoming celebration I decided to do some love themed baking. It didn’t take me long to work out what I wanted to make – after seeing a post on Facebook I had my heart set on baking some of these sweetheart box cookies by Glorious Treats.
Being pressed for time due to moving house (!!) in addition to the usual work and life commitments, I knew I wouldn’t have the time to decorate the cookies as beautifully and intricately as you might expect of Valentine’s biscuits. Instead, I took a different angle and challenged myself to make a set of cute – yet reasonably plain – Valentines sweetheart cookies in a single evening. Luckily, it turns out you can make these super cute biscuits in next to no time!
I jumped in the kitchen as soon as I got home from work and made a batch of this lemon sugar cookie dough I shared with you last week. The dough needs to chill in the fridge for around an hour, making it perfect for busy evenings when you have other things you need to get done.
Once chilled I rolled the dough out to ¼ inch thick and used a heart shaped cutter to press the cookies out – for each assembled sweetheart box you need four cookies, so make sure you keep track of how many you press out. I managed to get 24 large biscuits out of the recipe – enough for six cookie boxes. Then simply bake as usual – each tray only takes about 10 minutes to bake, though if you have fan bake you can halve the time by putting all the cookies in at once.
Once baked, use a smaller heart shaped cutter to press out the centre of two cookies per box. You need to do this as soon as they come out of the oven, while the cookies are still warm and soft to avoid cracking. Once done, carefully move the cookies onto a cooling rack and place them in a reasonably cool place – mine went on the dining room table within blowing distance of the fan we had going. The biscuits need to be completely cool before you ice them, but this should only take 30 – 45 minutes.
When your biscuits are completely cool it’s time to decorate them! Mix up a batch of stiff royal icing (I like the egg white variety) and pipe a thin line onto the bottom of a heart cookie with the centre cut out and place it onto a full cookie. Ice the base of the second cut-out cookie and stack on top, then move on to the next set. Be careful not to ice the second whole cookie onto the cookie stack – you want this one to just sit on top as a lid.
Then simply use the remaining icing to decorate the lid cookies however you like! Lining and flooding looks great (check out Lydia Bakes for a great how-to), but they’d be equally cute (and quicker!) iced using a knife or paddle. Then go to bed – they need at least an hour to set completely!
By the time you get up the biscuits will be ready to go – just fill with lollies or a small gift, sit on the top and you’re good to go! Not bad for a last minute Valentine’s Day gift, huh?
Your challenge now is to run home and make some of your own this evening! The recipe is great as it doesn’t require anything you won’t already have sitting in your cupboards, making it super easy to surprise someone special tomorrow. I’d love to see what you come up with – flick me an email with a photo of your handiwork or share them on my Facebook page.
Kirsten
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