With Sprinkles on Top

Valentine’s Day is on Tuesday! Here’s an updated collection of my recommended Valentine’s Day recipes. XOXO.

1. Tootsie Roll Fudge
2. Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes
3. Pink Ombre Cake
4. Razz-Ma-Tazz Bars
5. Pear-Raspberry Heart Pies
6. Mini Cherry Cheesecakes
7. Fudge Brownies
8. Red Velvet Cupcakes
9. Neapolitan Rice Krispie Treats
10. Brownie Bites
11. Buckeye Bites
12. Strawberry Lemon Cheesecake
13. Cherry Chocolate Kisses
14. Conversation Heart Cupcakes
15. Conversation Heart Cookies
16. Black & White Heart Cookies

I usually plan for (and make) holiday treats well in advance — like, months in advance. Welcome to the life of a food blogger! Back in December when I was planning out my projects for Valentine’s Day, I did a Google search for conversation heart cookies. I really dislike the little chalky hearts, but I really love the idea behind them. They are a staple of Valentine’s Day… they are the quintessential representation of sweetness and love. I found these cookies on Annie’s Eats and knew that I wanted to make them.

I used Annie’s recipe for almond sugar cookies and royal icing. I also highly recommend her royal icing tutorial. I just started decorating with royal icing and the delay was because I was intimidated by the process for years. I’m sure most of you can relate.. seeing those super fancy cookies that look as if they take an hour per cookie to decorate. I would say to myself, “there is no way I could do that!” or “who has the time to make such intricate cookies?!” As it turns out, I could do that (so can you!) and most of the cookies really aren’t too labor intensive. There are just a few long blocks of time required for the icing to set.

Check back tomorrow for a Valentine’s Day recipe round up!

Conversation Heart Cookies
Recipe source: Annie’s Eats
Print Recipe

Almond Flavored Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1-1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 cups sifted flour

Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼â€ thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yield will depend on size of cookies.

White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes). Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping.

Decorating Instructions:

• Refer to Annie’s Eats for her post about these cookies, as well as her tutorial on royal icing.

I love a good black & white cookie. They’re one of my favorites – the perfect combination of chocolate and vanilla, with a hint of lemon. But these black & white hearts aren’t authentic. If you’d like a recipe for an authentic B&W cookie, check out one of my previous posts! I had some extra cookie dough and decided to make a small batch of these cookies. With the other portion of the dough, I made conversation heart cookies — watch for that post at the end of this week!

Black and White Heart Cookies
Recipe source: Annie’s Eats (cookies and white royal icing)
Print Recipe

Almond Flavored Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1-1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 cups sifted flour

Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼â€ thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with heart-shaped cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yield will depend on size of the cutter you use.

White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes). Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container. This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating. Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated. Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping.

Chocolate Royal Icing
3-3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
7 Tablespoons water
3 Tablespoons meringue powder

Directions:
Mix all ingredients using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Transfer icing to an air-tight container. Add water, small amounts at a time, until you’ve reached a consistency appropriate for piping.

Assembly:

• Once you’ve made the cookies and they’ve cooled completely, outline half of the heart with white royal icing and half with chocolate. Let the outlines sit for a few hours so they dry thoroughly.
• Thin your white and chocolate icings to flooding consistency. Flood each side of the heart with the corresponding icing flavor. Allow to sit overnight to dry completely.
• If you missed my post about the football cookies and have never used royal icing before, this is a great tutorial from Annie’s Eats.

Super Bowl Sunday is a few days away! I don’t know if I’ll watch this year — as it will be a meeting of the two worst teams in the NFL and the two most obnoxious fan bases in all of sports. Sorry, east coasters, but it’s true! In any case, if you want to make some Super Bowl party treats, give these cookies a try!

Football Cut-Out Cookies
Recipe sources: Annie’s Eats (cookie and white royal icing), food.com (chocolate royal icing)
Print Recipe

These cookies involve decorating with royal icing. If you have never used royal icing or are unfamiliar with terms like “outlining” and “flooding”, please read this great tutorial from Annie at Annie’s Eats.  Bridget at Bake at 350 also has some amazing tutorials and tips regarding cookie-making, royal icing, and decorating.

I made two batches of sugar cookies to guarantee that I’d have enough dough for the footballs and the mini football fields. I used a football-shaped cookie cutter and a rectangle-shaped cookie cutter (mine was about 3-1/2 inches wide — the bigger the better for these!) for the fields. While the cookies were baking and cooling, I made a batch of white royal icing and a batch of chocolate royal icing. The recipes for the cookies and icings are below.

Almond Flavored Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg, beaten
1-1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 cups sifted flour

Directions:
Cream butter. Add powdered sugar. Blend in egg, almond extract, vanilla, salt and flour. Chill dough until firm. Roll to ¼â€ thickness on well-floured surface. Cut with cookie cutters. Place on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 8-10 min. Cookies should not brown. Frost and decorate when cool. Yield will depend on size of cookies.

White Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tablespoons meringue powder
5 Tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on low speed until the sheen has disappeared and the icing has a matte appearance (about 7-10 minutes).  Transfer the contents of the mixing bowl to an air-tight container.  This will be the stiffest consistency of the icing, and at this point it is still too stiff to use for decorating.  Add water a very small amount at a time and stir by hand until fully incorporated.  Continue until the icing has reached a consistency appropriate for piping.

Chocolate Royal Icing
3-3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
7 Tablespoons water
3 Tablespoons meringue powder

Directions:
Mix all ingredients using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Transfer icing to an air-tight container. Add water, small amounts at a time, until you’ve reached a consistency appropriate for piping.

•  Once you’ve got all of your cookies cooled and the icings made, begin outlining the cookies.
• For the footballs: outline the football cookies with a thin line of chocolate icing. I use a Wilton #2 pastry tip for outlining.
• For the fields: create two small rectangle outlines on each cookie — think of these as the stands for the “people”. Next, dye a portion of your white icing green. Pipe a thin line of green icing to connect the two white rectangles together. In other words, you will want three compartments on each cookie to flood — two for the fans and one for the green field.
• When all of the outlines are finished, let the cookies sit for 1 or 2 hours or until the icing is fully dry and hardened.
• Next step: flooding the cookies. Thin your chocolate, white, and green icing to flooding consistency. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out the tutorial link mentioned at the beginning of this post.
• Flood the footballs with chocolate icing. Next, flood the “stands” with white icing. Let the icing stand for a minute or so and then dip into a container of sprinkles. You want the flooded icing to set up just a little bit, so it’s not running when you dip it into the sprinkles. Next, flood the “field” with green icing.
• Allow the flooded cookies to dry for at least 3 hours or overnight.
• After the icing has dried, pipe the detailing on the footballs (laces, etc) and the yard lines on the football fields. Your flooding icing will be too thin for this, so slowly add powdered sugar to it until it becomes thicker for piping.

This is just a test post (that will hopefully make you smile.. as Gus is quite a charmer and loves the camera). I’ve been having major issues with my RSS feed on this blog. Images won’t display in the feed, which I know is totally, entirely annoying. Initially I thought it was OK because of all of the content and image thievery that goes on… but then I decided to be more zen about it. I want photos to display in your RSS feeds – I want you to have the full post to look at and not be required to click through to see the photo. I think I’ve got the issue fixed, but we’ll see. Thanks for your patience, lovely readers!