• Be My Valentine: “Bulls Eye Heart” Cookies

    Bulls Eye Heart Valentine’s Day Cookies

    You can use any cookie recipe you want to make these fun cookies.  We did a sugar cookie base, but chocolate chip would work great too.  The best part is you make your favorite cookie recipe and add frosting in the shape of a heart to make it special.  You could even do store bought cookies and add the frosting  to make it even easier if your tight on time! 🙂

    Our family likes picking up the writing frosting that sets up after a few minutes so you can stack the cookies without them sticking together.  The two brands we have used most often are Betty Crocker Writing Icing and Wilton Icing Writer (see picture below).  You can often find them for $0.99 (or less) for a box of 4 colors at Bargain Foods if you are in Upstate, South Carolina area or a couple dollars at Walmart or your local grocery store.  I have found that these tubes of frosting are easier for the girls to use as well.  Plus since you are not icing the entire cookie they get less frosting which means less sugar!

  • Be My Valentine: “Steal My Heart” Cookies

    “Steal My Heart” Valentine Cookies

    Last year I picked up this Valentine Heart pan on clearance after Valentine’s Day.  The girls were very excited to try it out this year.  We made these fun “Steal My Heart” Cookies together.  The girls had a blast mixing up the cookie dough and they thought the cookies tasted pretty yummy too.  You can use a variety  of cookie mixes with this cookie sheet.  Below is your basic sugar cookie mix, you can add in a few sprinkles for an extra special touch.

    Sugar Cookies

    • 1/3 cup Butter or Margarine
    • 1/3 cup Shortening
    • 3/4 cup Sugar
    • 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
    • 1 Egg
    • 1 teaspoon Vanilla
    • 2 cups All Purpose Flour
    • Sprinkles (optional)
    • Icing (optional)

    1.  Beat butter and shortening on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugar, baking powder, and a dash of salt.  Beat till combined, scraping the bowl so everything is well blended.  Beat in egg and vanilla.  Gradually add the flour into the mixture.

    2.  Cover and chill dough for 1 to 3 hours to make it easier to handle when making cookies or cutouts.

    3.  Lay down wax paper and lightly flour.  Roll the dough to 1/8 inch thickness.  Use a variety of cookie cutters to make the shapes you want.  Place on lightly greased cookie sheet.

    4.  Cut out a heart shape in the middle of the cookies.  Fill the hole with a crushed hard candy.  The candy will melt during baking creating the glass window pane hearts in the middle of the cookies. *We tried using up extra candy canes but they didn’t melt well (they tasted good) but I would stick to the one color hard candies like life savers!

    5.  Bake at 375° for 7 to 9 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are firm and light brown.  Cool until the middle window are set then transfer to a platter.

    Heart Shaped Pan

    Plate full of Valentine cookies

    Heart shaped Valentine cookies

    For more fun Valentine’s Day ideas go to Living in La La Land!