Valenties Sweets

My posts have been a little sporadic lately, work has been crazy and I seem to see less of my usual life and more of my desk than usual, so my apologies! Anyway, last Friday my best friend and I got together to make Valentines sweet treats, she dipped chocolate covered strawberries and I made chocolate cut out cookies.


The strawberries were very easy and delicious, Jenn melted a bag of Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave (slowly, 30 seconds at a time to avoid burning), then dipped the berries and some were then rolled in either coconut (the white) or crushed pistachios (the yellow). Then they were laid on wax paper to harden.

The chocolate cut out cookies I made were also easy, and very tasty!


Chocolate Cut-out Cookies
1 1/2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup (plus 2 tbsp) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/8 Tsp salt
1/4 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
3/4 Cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 Cup sifted Powdered Sugar
1 Large Egg, lightly beaten
1/2 Tsp Vanilla extract

1. Sift together dry ingredients in a small bowl.
2. Put butter and sugar into a bowl and cream together. Mix in egg and vanilla. Gradually add in dry ingredient mixture.
3. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill at least one hour.
4. Preheat oven to 350.
5. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to desired thickness.
6. Quickly cut out cookies from dough, if it gets too soft, put it in the freezer for a few minutes.
7. Bake until crisp, for a thinner cookie (1/8 of an inch) this is about 8 minutes.
8. Decorate & Enjoy!