I'm Into Valentine's Day

Listen, I'm not gonna lie to you. I enjoy Valentine's Day. I don't care if it's some "consumerist" crap made up to sell chocolate and presents to women.

 Ladies, why would we ever turn down chocolates, flowers, or other presents? Who cares what the reason is. 

Anyway, today I'm focusing on cookies. Congrats to those of you who get to enjoy these, because they are pretty awesome if I do say so myself. They also keep well in the freezer for a later date. 

The first type of cookie is the classic Peanut Butter Cookie. I got them off of Pinterest, of course. Folks, these are so easy to make. Also kid friendly. I don't have kids, but I assume so. HA!

The ingredients:

-1 egg

-1 c sugar

-1 c peanut butter (chunky or smooth works)

- 1 tsp vanilla 

-(optional if you are experimental like me) cinnamon, other types of nuts, or chocolate chips for melting and drizzling later

Directions: (you ready for this!?)

-preheat oven to 350 degrees 

-mix everything (unless using chocolate chips for drizzling... Set them aside)

-roll into 1" balls (cookie dough scooper/melon baller works FABULOUS for this)

-press down with fork

-bake 7-8 mins on greased baking sheet

-let cool on rack or laid out paper bag

**check them towards the end of bake time and make sure they are not burning... You want them brown but not too crispy (like this)

TA DAA! 

Now, being the over achiever that I am, I drizzled them with chocolate. All you do is melt about 1/2 to 1 c of chocolate chips (I almost always add about 1 T of shortening if you have it on hand. It helps in melting and hardening the chocolate more efficiently.)

Final result:

If it clumps while drizzling, LET IT. Still tastes amazing. 

So good. 

My next recipe features Valentines day cookies. I used a classic sugar cookie recipe. This was as close as I could find online for the recipe I used:

Ingredients For Classic Rolled Sugar Cookies

• 
• Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 
• Soft Sugar Cookies IV

• 
• Cracked Sugar Cookies I

• 
• Best Peanut Butter Cookies Ever

• 
• Decorating Sugar Cookies

• 
• How to Make Sugar Cookies

• 
• Easy Sugar Cookies

• 
• Battle of the Butter: Salted vs. Unsalted

• 
• Sugar and Sweeteners

• 
• All about Eggs

• 
• Vanilla Extract vs Vanilla Bean

• 
• Measuring All-Purpose Flour

• 
• Types of Sal

Original recipe makes 5 dozenChange Servings

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened

• 2 cups white sugar

• 4 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  
  

  Directions:

  1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
     
  2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
  3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

  Because I didn't have a heart shaped cookie cutter, I had to get creative and hand cut them with a butter knife? Was this a little strange/crazy? Yes. That's how bad I wanted Valentine's themed cookies. One time a year, right?

• 5 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

Anyway, after the cookies were baked, I let them cool and got started on icing them. Props to my roommate Wesley, who let me use her refrigerated mereingue icing. You can find the powder/instructions for making it online or at craft stores like Michaels or A.C. Moore.

Three colors: pink, plain white and red. First, I coated all of the cookies with one of the colors. It got a little drippy, but I was more concerned about making them look cool and less about neatness. I figured I could break off the "drips" later if I needed to.

The icing needed to dry before I could start adding designs. After if was dry, I got to work.

 I had to get creative.

 

Anyway, they aren't perfect, but I am pleased with the results. They are festive. I let the icing dry and they are perfect for handing out to my peeps. 

My next mission is to get busy baking/cooking stuff on this lovely snow day! No school today.

Until next time,

K