Here’s another fun and delicious cookie to make for Valentine’s Day! The center each heart shaped cookie is a sparkling red heart-shaped “window”. This amazing cookie is easy to make and the results are breath-taking.
Ingredients:
* 1/2 cup butter, softened
* 3/4 cup sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/3 cup crushed clear red hard candy (Life Savers or Jolly Ranchers)
Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a 4-in. heart-shaped cookie cutter dipped in flour. Cut out centers with a 1-1/4-in. heart-shaped cookie cutter; set aside to re-roll. Place cookies 1 in. apart on lightly greased foil-lined baking sheets. Fill centers with crushed candy.
Bake at 375 for 7-9 minutes or until candy is melted and edges of cookies begin to brown. Cool completely on baking sheets. Carefully peel cookies off foil.
DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla extract, and salt. Next with a pastry blender or two knives used scissor-fashion, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle 4 to 5 tablespoons cold water ( 1 tablespoon at time) into the flour mixture, mixing lightly with a fork after each addition until dough is just moist enough to hold together. Shape dough into a ball then wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or until firm enough to roll.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin, roll one-third of the dough at a time 1/8 inch thick, keeping the remaining dough refrigerated. With a floured 3 or 4 inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut dough into as many hearts as possible. Place the hearts 1/2 inches apart on an ungreased large cookie sheet. Keep the trimmings. With a floured 1 1/2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out centers from half of hearts. Remove cutout centers, and bake along with larger cookies, checking after 7 minutes for doneness.
3. Bake cookies 10 to 12 minutes until lightly browned. Move cookies to wire racks to cool. Combine remaining dough and trimmings together to make more cookies.
4. When cookies are cool, sprinkle cookies with cutout centers with powdered sugar. Spread each cookie without cutout center with 1 rounded teaspoon raspberry preserves; top each with a center cut-out cookie, gently pressing cookies together to form a sandwich. Store in tightly covered container.
Here’s a great dessert that is both pretty to look at and delicious to eat! Layering just a few ingredients in a trifle bowl makes for an impressive presentation. Perfect for a Valentine brunch or romantic dinner for 2!
You do need to plan for this dessert ahead of time, as it needs to chill for 8 hours or overnight.
Ingredients
1 (7 ounce) package jellyrolls, each cut into 3 slices (Little Debbie jelly rolls can be used too!)
1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 1/2 cups milk
3 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
Directions
Arrange jellyroll slices on the bottom and sides of a 2.5 quart glass bowl or trifle dish.
Prepare pudding according to box directions, except use only 1 1/2 cups milk; let sit for 5 minutes to thicken. Fold in 1 cup whipped topping.
Arrange 1/2 of the strawberries on jellyroll slices; top with pudding, then layer remaining strawberries and whipped topping. Garnish with strawberry halves, if desired.
Valentine’s Day is approaching fast! We’ve just unveiled 2 new fun and delicious Valentine cookie bouquets for your sweetheart!
Our gourmet cookie bouquets are created from delicious butter creme cookies, baked fresh daily and professionally hand-decorated. Cookies are approximately 4-5″ tall, depending on shape. Each bouquet is artfully arranged and carefully packaged for shipment to insure it arrives safely.
Our first new design really packs a punch! Let your Valentine know you think they’re a real knockout! We’ve decorated cookies shaped like boxing gloves, boxer shorts and heart for a unique and unforgettable gift! Perfect for the hard-to-buy-for man in your life!
The next new bouquet is our “Sending My Love” cookie bouquet. Sweetly decorated mailboxes, lips, hearts and an evelope sealed with a kiss make up this fun bouquet. Whether your Valentine is near or far, go straight to their heart (or stomach!) with a delcious cookie bouquet!
Prices start at $28 and we ship them straight to their door!
I see romance in your future! For a unique gift this Valentine’s Day, consider a gourmet chocolate or caramel dipped fortune cookie!
If it’s variety you’re looking for, choose our tin of 18 or 24 fortune cookies dipped in caramel, milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate (or an assortment). We sprinkle each one with pink, red and white candy heart sprinkles for a festive look. Choose our Love and Romance messages, standard fortune cookie messages, or a number of other fortune themes.
If you’d like to add a personal touch to your Valentine’s Day gift, choose our giant fortune cookie. You can specify what you would like the fortune to say, and we will neatly tuck it away inside of the cookie! Imagine their surprise when they crack open their fortune cookie to find a heartfelt message from you! Our giant gourmet fortune cookies weigh nearly a pound and measure 7″ wide x 4″ tall x 6″ deep (about the size of two hands).
Ring in the New Year with the festive bouquet overflowing with cookies to celebrate the season.
The 9 cookie version of the bouquet comes with 2 champagne flute, one clock, 4 celebration balloon, and one champagne bottle-shaped cookies. The large cookies each measure about 5 to 6″ tall and about 3/8″ thick depending on the cookie design. We also add a center cookie where you can add a personal message. This stylish cookie gift is available in 5 different sizes with prices starting at just $29.
My Dad can eat a whole batch of this Christmas candy in one sitting, but that might be why he has a jolly tummy just like Santa. Seriously, this peanut brittle is quite tasty and oh so easy to make.
1 1/2 cups raw peanuts
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
pinch of salt
1 Tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
In a glass bowl, stir together the salt, corn syrup and sugar. Place the bowl in the microwave and heat on 100% Power for 9 minutes. Remove from microwave and stir in the butter and vanilla. Then microwave on 100% power for an additional 3 minutes. Remove from microwave and stir in the baking soda stirring really well…note the mixture should be foamy. Stir in the peanuts. Then pour the mixture onto a well-greased cookie sheet (or on a cookie sheet lined with Sil-pat). Cool the mixture completely and then break into edible-sized pieces.
I know what you are thinking – date balls for Christmas – yuck. Well maybe that is just what I thought. At any rate, these classic Christmas cookies are now one of my favorites. The melted dates are blended with butter to create a scrumptious almost caramel like texture that is infused with rice krispies for a bit of crunch. My mouth is watering just thinking about them!
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 lb. pitted dates, cut fine
1 beaten egg
1 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts
2 cups Rice Krispies®
extra fine flake coconut
In a medium-size heavy saucepan, melt the dates, sugar and butter together over medium heat (stirring constantly) until it is smooth (almost like caramel). Remove from the heat. Then add the eggs, milk, vanilla and salt stirring well. Be sure to cool the date mixture slightly before adding the eggs so they don’t get scrambled. Put the mixture back on the stove over low heat stirring until thickened. Again remove from heat and mix in the nuts and the rice krispies until well distributed. Cool completely. Place the coconut in a small bowl. Butter your hands to keep the mixture from sticking and form the mixture into 1″ diameter size balls and then roll the balls of cookies in coconut. Place on wax paper until the cookie balls are set. Store in an airtight container.
Milk chocolate & peanut butter cookies are one of my favorites because I just love the smooth melty texture and taste of this sweet combination. These cookies are a childhood favorite and my kids love them too! In my house we usually end up doubling or tripling this recipe because they disappear so fast.
½ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 egg
½ cup peanut butter
1 ¼ cups flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
1 bag of miniature peanut butter cups (unwrapped)
Christmas themed miniature paper baking cups
To make the cookie batter, cream together the sugars and the butter until fluffy. Then mix in the egg and peanut butter stirring well. Finally add the baking so and then the flour mixing until you get a well-blended dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough in the refrigerator for an hour. Meanwhile, line a mini-muffin pan with the mini paper baking cups. Remove and form into about 24 – 3/4″ round dough balls. Place each dough ball in a mini baking cup. Bake dough balls in the oven at 375 degF for about 9 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into the center of each cookie pressing down until the top of the peanut butter cup lines up with the top of the cookie. Leave the cookies sit in the muffin tins for 10 minutes and then remove them cooling the rest of the way on a cooling rack.
In my family, we pop these little bite size morsels in the microwave for maybe 10 seconds so the chocolate gets a little melty when we want to have a real Christmas cookie treat!
Spritz cookies have been a Christmas staple in our family for at least 30 years. My Mom has a really old-fashioned cookie press that you have to twist to extract the cookies….personally I like the trigger version, but mine has been replaced several times (because the plastic broke) while her old one just keeps going and going. On the plate below, you can see some snowflake design cookies that we made and then just added green and red sugar. You can also color the dough with food coloring (this is what we do to make green Christmas tree shaped cookies).
1 ½ cups butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract
3 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
In a large mixing bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid Mixer with the white paddle), cream butter and sugar together. Then add the egg, milk, vanilla, almond extract beating well. Stir together flour and baking powder in a separate bowl or on a piece of wax paper (to make it easy to add to wet ingredients). Gradually add flour mixture to creamed mixture, mixing to a smooth dough. If you are going to add food coloring to the dough, I recommend doing it when you have about half of the flour mixture added so that it is easier to mix in. Do NOT chill the dough! Shape dough in small logs and place in a cookie press (see the video below for great tips). Choose the press die to create the cookie shape that you want. Then press cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degF for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned around edges. Remove cookies from sheet and cool on a rack. Makes 7 to 8 dozen Spritz cookies.
My Tips – If you are making Christmas trees or wreaths, you will likely want to color the dough green. I recommend using the paste type food coloring so that it doesn’t change the consistency of the dough. No matter what the cookie shape, you can decorate them with colored sugars prior to baking in the oven.
Here is a great video that I found at YouTube. It shows how to load and use a cookie press to make Christmas designs. It also details how you can take those shapes and arrange them to create a Christmas cookie wreath.
Here’s another fun and delicious cookie to make for Valentine’s Day! The center each heart shaped cookie is a sparkling red heart-shaped “window”. This amazing cookie is easy to make and the results are breath-taking.
filling for a fun and sweet 
Here’s a great dessert that is both pretty to look at and delicious to eat! Layering just a few ingredients in a trifle bowl makes for an impressive presentation. Perfect for a Valentine brunch or romantic dinner for 2!
bouquets
If it’s variety you’re looking for, choose our tin of 18 or 24 
Ring in the New Year with the festive bouquet overflowing with cookies to celebrate the season. 
