Valentine Cookies

We finally got our V-day cookies finished. I won't post the recipe because I'm lazy and you can type in "bhg.com" on your browser and find it yourself. But I will give you my "review" on the recipe.

Caroline and I mixed the dough Saturday while Ezra went exploring in the yard with Daddy. We gave it some chill time while we ate supper and then got it back out. I don't love working with chilled dough, because it's not easy, especially with little helpers. This dough was especially crumbly...I'm suspicious that it is due to the dry conditions where we live. If you live where you are blessed with any humidity, I don't think it would be a problem. Eventually I spritzed the dough with a teensy water and that helped a bit. Also, for my round cookie cutter I used a biscuit cutter, which did have a fluted edge, but not defined enough, the "flutes" didn't show up at all once the cookies baked.
Another piece of advice is to watch carefully during cooking. These cookies can brown quickly. Our dough was not rolled evenly, and so some cookies on the pan would brown faster than others. We tried not to worry too much, just makes them a little more crispy.

For the frosting filling we made a 1/2 recipe of the cream cheese filling and tinted it pink with evil food coloring. We also made a 1/2 recipe of the easy fudge frosting from the "chocolate stack cake recipe". A 1/2 recipe of each is perfect for filling all of the cookies and having just a wee bit of fudge filling for snacking on...trust me, you will! By the way, I'm dying to make the "chocolate stack cake" but have to wait for an event. I can't just make desserts around here because Tadd is not a dessert guy and the kids love sugar, but not so much in cake form. They stick to ice cream, candy and the occasional cookie.

Overall, the recipe was as easy as any other cut-out cookie. I would recommend using it. I think the cookies turn out pretty and festive. Oh! I almost forgot. The recipe calls for you to sprinkle with vanilla sugar before baking. The vanilla sugar is easy to make, but takes two weeks of sitting in the container. We didn't have time for that, so I just used some raw sugar to sprinkle them with. I know the vanilla sugar would have made them taste even better, but that will have to wait for another time. I am planning to make the vanilla sugar to have on hand since it will enhance many other desserts and coffee and keeps the same as regular granulated sugar.



The taste testers gave decent reviews--Ezra finished his and Caroline opened hers, ate the frosting and "saved" the rest for later. We'll try to drop off the rest tonight on our way to play at the gym.

This is how we stay warm on cold mornings...huddle over the heat vents!


Dried cherries are a favorite snack around here.


And we especially like to cuddle and goof off after bath time.

What about you? What do you do on cold winter home-bound mornings?