The other day I was getting ready to head over to my friend Jill’s house to watch a movie.  She’s a huge fan of cookies and red velvet, so I figured I should whip something up before I headed over (to eat cookies).  Since Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, I wanted to try my hand at something a little festive and appropriate for the holiday.  These little guys fit the bill.  I took them over, still warm from the oven, and they were quickly and repeatedly snacked on.  Nothing beats good red velvet, right?

So, before you make this recipe, there are a few things you should know.  Some things that I may have had a few issues with.  But the end result turned out so good that I had to share them with you.

The cookie dough is VERY thick, so if you don’t happen to have an electric or (preferably) standing mixer, I would give these a pass.  The dough would probably be way too tough to combine by hand.  As far as the red food coloring goes, I used the standard Wilton red food coloring gel….but I had to use an awful lot of it (almost the entire larger vial) to get the cookies to turn a red shade.  Perhaps a liquid food coloring would work better with this recipe in the future (it might also help with the thickness of the cookie dough, too.)  When you are ready to bake them, flatten them down a little with your fingers or the back of a spoon-they are very cake-like and won’t flatten out like regular (less delicious) cookies.

The fact that Jill continues to talk about how delicious these cookies over a week later says a lot.  That’s music to my ears.

Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Servings: approximately 20 cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup cocoa powder

Red food coloring liquid or gel

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

2. In the bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and both sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

3. Add the food coloring gel or liquid until you reach the desired color.

4. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add the egg and vanilla, mixing well until combined.

5. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder, mixing until thoroughly combined.**I had to add  more food coloring gel at this point because the addition of the cocoa powder really changed the color.

6. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold in the white chocolate chips until incorporated.

7. Using a cookie dough scoop or a tablespoon, drop the dough into mounds about two inches apart from one another.  Lightly flatten each cookie dough mound with your fingers or the back of a spoon.

8. Bake until slightly golden and crisp around the edges, about 10-12 minutes.  Enjoy.

Source: Barely adapted from How Sweet It Is.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope you are all enjoying your day, enjoying the things that you love the most.

I thought that chocolate covered strawberry sugar cookies with royal icing might get you in the spirit.  :)

I saw these little 3-inch or so cookie cutters at Sur la Table, and I had to have one.  With Valentine’s Day coming up, I wanted to try out a new sugar cookie recipe and play around with royal icing again.  They certainly got me in the loving spirit.  I have to say, while I am glad that I tried this new sugar cookie recipe, I still love my old one more.  The flavor of these cookies is great-light and buttery, but they are definitely not as soft and chewy as my other cookie recipe.  It’s a personal preference, I guess.  I always want my royal icing cookies to be soft-not crisp.  I was a little extra cautious with my baking time of these because of the small size.  I ended up baking them for only 10 minutes total, and that seemed to do the trick.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Sugar Cookies

Servings: approximately 36 3-inch small strawberry cookies

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

One batch Royal Icing, divided into desired colors****I added a little bit of dark cocoa powder to the “chocolate” royal icing-it added a little bit of color and a hint of chocolate flavor

Instructions

1. In your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a separate medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. Once the butter is light and fluffy, add the egg and vanilla, mixing well.

4. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour mixture.

5. Mix until combined.

6.  Divide the dough into two halves, form into 4-5-inch flat disks, and wrap tightly with plastic wrap.

7. Freeze the dough until firm (about 20 minutes).

8. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

9.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

10.  Remove the dough disks from the freezer, one at a time.  You will need them to warm up a little bit before rolling.

11.  Once malleable, roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface to an 1/8-inch thick rectangle, dusting with extra flour as needed.

12.  Cut out the strawberry shapes with your cookie cutter.

13.  Carefully transfer each cookie to the prepared baking sheets, rerolling and cutting out more shapes as needed, and repeating with the second dough disk.

14.  Bake each baking sheet, rotating halfway through, until the edges are lightly golden, 10 to 18 minutes.  Cool completely on wire racks.

15.  Once your royal icing is prepared and divided into the respective containers, pipe and flood the cookies as desire.

Please see my Royal Icing tutorial for some helpful hints and tips, as well as royal icing decorating instructions.

Source:  Martha Stewart’s Basic Sugar Cookies, Royal Icing inspiration and recipe originally from Annie’s Eats.

Here is decadent dessert #2 in my line-up of Valentine’s Day treats.  THIS is what I call celebrating Valentine’s Day.

I came across this recipe a while back, and I realized I didn’t have too many cherry chocolate combinations on the blog.  I have posted a chocolate covered cherry recipe in the past, but that was it.  I love the combination of chocolate and cherries-I love cherry flavored anything.  You know those Mr. Scent markers?  Yeah, the cherry one was, by far, my favorite as a kid.  Still is.

I realize I have been getting a little crazy with the candy melts lately.  But, I swear, these things are addicting to work with.  I’m finding myself doodling pictures here and there, coming up with new ways to work with and color those candy discs.  The possibilities are endless, but I promise you this is my last post with the candy melts in a while.

These heavenly little brownie bites were made in the usual way, in an 8 x 8-inch square baking pan, and then I used a small 1 and 1/2-inch round cookie cutter to cut out the rounds.  Surprisingly, I got a lot more out of the batch than I thought I would.  I added a swirl of thick and creamy chocolate ganache using my Wilton 4B large tip.  As my brownies were cooling, I simply melted down the candy melts (originally white in color), and then, once melted, I divided the batch in two and colored them red and pink with my food coloring gels. I filled my pastry bags with the melted candy, popped a Wilton #2 tip on each bag (one for the pink and one for the red), and then piped out heart designs on some wax paper.  It didn’t take that long for the candy to harden.  Once the ganache was set, I simply added a little candy heart to the top of each one to give it more dimension and served them later that night.

This brownie has incredible flavor-I opted for bittersweet chocolate in the recipe to decrease the sweet factor because I was afraid the cherries and additional ganache would make them too sugary-I was wrong.  If you like dark chocolate, then you need to try it with the bittersweet chocolate.  If you prefer your brownies to be sweet, try it with milk chocolate instead. I soaked the dried cherries in apple juice (see below) instead of the amaretto since I didn’t have any on hand, but I bet soaking the cherries in the alcohol would make this a more grown-up treat.

Cherry Almond Brownies

Servings: approximately 16  1 and 1/2-inch brownie rounds

Ingredients

For the brownies:

1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped

1 tablespoon apple juice (or Amaretto liqueur)

3/4 cup chopped unsweetened baking chocolate

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

1 15-ounce can pitted dark, sweet cherries, drained***You can chop these if you want smaller pieces of cherry in the brownies.

1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (feel free to substitute semisweet or milk chocolate if you prefer a sweeter brownie)

For the ganache:

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the candy melt hearts:

1 14.5-ounce bag white candy melts

Red gel food coloring

Pink gel food coloring

Instructions

1. For the brownies: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Generously butter an 8×8-inch square baking pan, set aside.

3. In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the dried chopped cherries and the apple juice, cover, and microwave for 45 seconds.  Set aside to cool.

4. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring frequently until smooth.

5.  Add the sugar and salt, whisking continuously.  Set aside to cool to room temperature.  **I waited about 10 minutes or so.  You could speed this process up by refrigerating it briefly.

6.  Once cooled, transfer the chocolate mixture to your standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.

7. Add the eggs, one at a time, to the chocolate mixture.

8. Add the flour, baking powder, soaked cherries, toasted almonds (it’s ok if they break up), canned dark sweet cherries (also ok if they break up a little), and chocolate chips. Mix well.

9. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared baking pan.

10. Bake the brownies for 25-30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

11.  Remove from the oven and let cool to room temperature before cutting with your cookie cutter rounds.

12.  For the ganache: In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to a very gentle simmer (do not boil!)

13.  While the cream is warming up, place your chocolate chips in a separate medium-sized bowl.

14.  Once the cream is hot, pour it over the chocolate and let sit for 1-2 minutes.

15.  Gently whisk the mixture until smooth.

16. Add the butter and continue to whisk until completely incorporated and smooth.

17. Allow the ganache to come to room temperature (it will thicken), or you can place it in the refrigerator, stirring every 10 minutes, until it reaches your desired consistency.

18.  Once thickened, place the ganache in your pastry bag fitted with the Wilton 4B tip, and lightly swirl your ganache onto the top of each brownie bite.

19. For the candy hearts: In a heatproof bowl over gently simmering water, melt the candy melts, stirring frequently until completely smooth.

20. Remove from the heat, and, working quickly, remove half of the mixture to a second bowl.

21.  Add your desired gel colorings to each half, returning the bowls to their positions over the simmering water, if need be.  ***Remember, this stuff cools and hardens quickly.

22.  Add the colored candy melt mixtures to separate pastry bags fitted with Wilton #2 tips.

23.  Over sheets of wax paper, gently pipe out your heart shapes.

24. Let cool to room temperature.

25.  Garnish each brownie bite with a candy heart.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sources:  Brownies adapted from King Arthur Flour Company and ganache directly from Annie’s Eats.