Valentine Cookies

Hello again, 

Its been a while since I posted a recipe. Since Christmas, I haven't done much baking. Brownie Points is taking a break for a while because I am in the process of finding a job. Yes, I have finally decided that I've had enough of a break. I've already overshot my initial time table to finishing my portfolio. Oh well. It will all get done soon.

I'm not much of a romantic. According to my profile picture on Facebook (courtesy; Alicia Souza), I would happily devour my valentine! But here I am baking heart shaped cookies on Valentines day. I surprise myself sometimes.

One of my friends has a charity sale at work today, so I helped her baked some cookies for her to sell. We baked chocolate and vanilla hearts (and a few stars as well). This is the easiest recipe ever. If you aren't a baker and want to start, this is the recipe to start with.

Chocolate and Vanilla Hearts

(or stars or whatever shape cookie cutters you have)

This recipe is an adaption of one found in 'Cookshelf Baking' by Emma Patmore.

Combine 300g of butter with 250g of sugar, 1 egg and 1 tbsp of vanilla. Beat well with a wooden spoon till nice and smooth. Sift together 450g of plain flour, 1 tsp of baking soda. Add to butter mixture and mix with your hands to form a ball of cookie dough. Roll out to about 5mm thick. Dust flour on the surface, so that it doesn't stick. Cut out as many shapes as you can and then roll the extras out again and cut out more. I got about 40 from my batch. But that kind of depends on the size of your cookie cutters. Place onto a baking tray and bake in a preheated 170 degree oven for about 15 minutes. The cookies should be a little soft when you take them out. They will harden when you cool them.

For the chocolate batch. Put 300g of flour and 150g of cocoa powder. The rest of the measurements should be the same.

Once cooled, dust with icing sugar and eat them. If you're in a good mood, share with people.

Note:

1. If the dough is a bit sticky, add more flour. Even if it's a bit sticky, it's not going to roll easily.

2. Make sure you don't roll it out too thin. If the cookies are too thin, they stick to the baking tray and crack really easily. You will have lots of broken hearts. haha!

3. I powdered my own sugar, hence it's not that fine and doesn't melt fast (which usually happens with the humidity)

4. Store in an airtight container.