Valentine Baking

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” – Charles M. Schultz

Valentine’s Day is approaching quickly and we all know how much I love that holiday!

This week we are going to look at some baking recipes that you can make for your love.

Last year, Nicole made for us some really delicious heart shaped sugar cookies that were decorated in Valentine colors with our names on them. They were so yummy and so cute; she’s going to share her recipe this week in the blog.

When I think of Valentine’s Day I think of chocolate covered strawberries. They are super easy to make and so delicious and even a little bit healthy for you. All you need are strawberries and chocolate. When I make these bite sized treats I clean my strawberries first and then dry them up completely. I melt down my chocolate, usually Baker’s semi-sweet chocolate, and then I dip the berries. After the chocolate hardens a bit, I drizzle white chocolate over the other chocolate for an interesting design.

Another thing that I’m trying for Valentine’s Day is a giant cookie. I saw a giant heart shaped cookie pan at the store the other day and it got me wanting to try making a giant sized cookie. I didn’t have a big heart shaped pan so I took a pizza pan and used that instead; it worked perfect. I just used my go to chocolate chip cookie recipe and spread it out on the pan and baked it for about 20 minutes and it came out just right. For Valentine’s Day I may splurge and get myself that heart shaped pan and maybe I’ll find a Valentine to bake a giant cookie for! 

Samantha

Nicole’s Sugar Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:

- 4 cups flour

- 3 tsp. baking powder

- ½ tsp. salt

- ¾ cup butter

- 2/3 cup shortening

- 1 ½ cups sugar

- 2 eggs

- 2 Tbsp. milk

- 2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

- Preheat oven to 375°F.

- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

- Beat butter and shortening.

- Add sugar. Beat.

- Add eggs, milk & vanilla. Beat well.

- Add sifted dry ingredients.

- Cover & chill at least 3 hours.

- Roll out and cut into shapes.

- Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 6-8 min.

Sugar Cookie Glaze

Ingredients:

- 1 egg white

- 2 cups icing sugar

- ½ tsp. vanilla

- 1-2 Tbsp. milk (enough to make a glaze)

- ¼ tsp. cream of tartar

Directions:

- Mix all ingredients together to make a glaze

- Ice cookies

* If you want a coloured glaze, then add a few drops of food colouring

**Do not mix this with an electric mixer as overbeating will take away the sheen of the dried glaze and it will be flat