By Hanna Yamato
Valentine’s Day: a holiday filled with love, hearts, candy, roses, and of course, delicious treats. These Valentine’s cookies are a perfect gift to give your significant other, friends, family, and anyone else you appreciate. The amount of freedom you have in decorating your cookies makes this whole process even more fun!
Ingredients:
For Cookie Dough:
-3 cups all purpose flour
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 cup butter softened (2 sticks)
-1 cup granulated sugar
-2 large egg yolks
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-1/3 cup milk
For Decorating:
-Red, pink, and/or white frosting/icing
-Strawberry Jam
-Sprinkles, edible pearls, etc.
Steps:
- Sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl.
- Using either an electric mixer or a standing mixer on medium speed, cream the butter and sugar together until it is fluffy and smooth, and there are no granules of sugar remaining.
- Pour in and beat the egg yolks and vanilla extract into the butter/sugar mixture.
- Slowly start adding in the dry ingredients and milk until the mixture assimilates.
- Scrape the dough onto a floured work surface, shape into a ball, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least three hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- On a floured surface, roll out the chilled dough between parchment paper to about a ¼ inch thickness. Cut the dough with heart-shaped cookie cutters and transfer onto prepared baking sheets (Depending on your work surface, you might need to split the dough in half; the colder the dough, the crisper the edges!)
- Bake for about 8-10 minutes until the edges are lightly browned. Transfer the cookies onto wire racks and make sure to cool completely before decorating.
- After the cookies are completely cooled, decorate them with frosting/icing, strawberry jam, and sprinkles! There are no rules to decorating, so get creative with this final step!