I always enjoyed the ritual of exchanging valentines as a kid. Opening up a box of 32 (plus two for the teachers!) brand-spanking-new valentines, preferably the Snoopy variety. Carefully addressing the envelopes in crayon for all the kids in my class. Even the boys. Dropping a few conversation heart candies into each envelope. Being careful not to include any too-lovey messages in the ones for the aforementioned boys. Eagerly opening the little cards from everyone else in the class. Hoping for chocolate.
{Hmm-hmm} years later, I still love Valentine’s Day. Our playgroup is having a little celebration this week for the kiddies so I thought I’d make some conversation heart-inspired cookies, with one subtle little twist – these are actually made with animal cracker dough. The difference? They’ve got a lot more crunch to them as well as a hint of spice from dashes of nutmeg and mace. For a treat that will be grabbed and tossed by two-year olds I tend to prefer these over traditional sugar cookies. Plus they’re so darned good.
There’s a bit of inactive chilling time involved with these cookies, so be sure not to wait till the last minute. As for the icing, it was actually a bit easier than I’d expected. The trick is to use only a small amount of icing while you’re piping – it’s much easier to control that way. Rather than make my own royal icing, as I did with the Butterfly Sugar Cookies, I used some Betty Crocker Cookie Icing tubes I saw in the baking aisle. They set up rather quickly just like royal icing and saved me from having to make several batches with the different colors. The decorating is the fun part anyway, right?
Valentine Heart Cookies
Adapted from the Animal-Cracker Cookies recipe on the back of the Williams-Sonoma Circus Cookie Cutters box
INGREDIENTS:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon mace
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Food coloring
Heart-shaped cookie cutters
Royal icing (see my Butterfly Sugar Cookies post for a recipe) or ready-made cookie icing
DIRECTIONS:
Over a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and mace. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on high speed for 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium, slowly add the sugar and beat for 2 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for 1 minute, stopping the mixer once to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Stop the mixer and add half of the flour mixture. Beat on low speed until most of the flour has been absorbed. Add the remaining flour and beat until all of the flour has been absorbed and the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, 2 to 3 minutes.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide into 3 equal balls. Create a little well in each ball of dough and drop in food coloring to create your desired color (I added about 10 drops to each ball). Work the color into the dough until it’s evenly distributed (NOTE: You’ll likely have food coloring under your fingernails for a few days – a badge of honor!). Shape each ball into a disk and wrap separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.
Let the dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Place each dough disk between 2 clean, large pieces of plastic wrap. Roll out the dough to 1/8″ thickness. (If the dough cracks while you’re rolling, let it stand at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes more). Remove the plastic wrap and place the dough on a floured work surface. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour.
Preheat an oven to 350°F.
Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Dip the heart-shaped cookie cutters into flour just before using and cut out the shapes. Freeze the baking sheets for 15 minutes, or refrigerate for 30 minutes. Gather up the scraps, reroll and cut out more cookies.
Bake the cookies until very light golden brown, 14 to 16 minutes. Transfer the sheets to wire racks and let the cookies cool to room temperature. Once cooled, use icing to pipe on sweet phrases for your valentine!
