Valentine’s Day is almost upon us and it usually separates people into two categories – ones that simply adore it and others that can’t wait for it to be over. Whether you’ve got a Valentine for this February 14th isn’t really that important, because you can always celebrate your glorious self or spend the night out with friends, the most important things is to have fun.
And speaking of fun, why not mix it with deliciousness to get some scrumptious cookies that follow the theme of Valentine’s Day? Valentines is a great time to be ingenious with your cookie recipes to appeal to anyone with a sweet tooth and today we’ll share with you a couple of recipes that will make this Valentine’s Day worth your while.
Valentine’s Chocolate-Marshmallow Cookies
Mixing chocolate with marshmallow really can’t go bad, and with these cookies the combo is like an explosion of tastes and creaminess in your mouth. They are excellent on any day, but making them on Valentine’s Day will guarantee you won’t spend too much time and money and the results will be amazing.
You will need:
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
- 1-1/4 cups (280g) of softened butter
- 2 cups (400g) of sugar
- 3/4 cup (96g) baking cocoa
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 jar (7 ounces) marshmallow crème
How the magic happens:
First, take softened butter, mix it with sugar and cream it until it’s nice and homogenous. Add and beat in eggs and vanilla extract. Use another bowl to combine the dry ingredients – flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt, then pour the dry mixture slowly into the bowl with wet ingredients. Leave it to sit covered in the fridge for about an hour and take it out when it’s dense enough to shape it with your hands.
Preheat oven to 350° (180°C). Scoop the dough with a tablespoon, shape it into balls and place them on baking sheet. Bake up to 8 minutes or until you’re sure that cookies are set. After you’ve taken the cookies out of the oven and let them cool for a couple of minutes, use a 1-1/4-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter to score the center of half of the cookies. After you’re done, let it all cool down completely.
Take your cookie cutter again to remove the heart-shaped cookie center you’ve previously scored. Then take the other half of cookies that are whole and evenly spread marshmallow crème and use the heart-center cookies to cover it. Sprinkle it with glitter or any kind of decoration of your choice for maximum visual effect.
Valentine’s Day Oreo Truffles
Do we really need to say more than you can see in the title? These heart-shaped Oreo truffles are incredibly easy to make and they will be great even if you freeze them and then use them again whenever you feel like it. Everyone deserves a sweetheart, but everyone deserve a sweet Oreo heart even more.
You will need:
- 5 oz. (150g) non-refrigerated cream cheese
- 24 Oreo cookies
- 12-14 oz. (350-415g) high-quality white chocolate
- Two baking trays
How the magic happens:
Take your Oreos and use your food processor to crush them into fine crumbs, after which you should mix it with the cream cheese, either with a spatula or with your mixer.
Have a baking tray at the ready and line it with baking paper. Pour the Oreo-cream cheese mix onto the tray and spread it as evenly as possible until you get a layer that’s about 1/2 inch thick. Make note that if you’ve got a bigger cookie cutter, then the layer should be thicker. After you’re done, put the tray in the freezer (for up to an hour) to become harder and fit for cutting.
Use your cookie cutter to cut the “dough” into little heart truffles and then you need to get them back into the freezer for another half an hour. The truffles need to be frozen because they will be soon dipped into hot melted white chocolate.
Prepare the second baking tray with the baking paper, so that you have a place to put the dipped hearts. Melt your white chocolate and then prepare for action. Take out several frozen Oreo hearts from the freezer (don’t get them all out at once, because they won’t be firm enough), and dip them one by one into the melted chocolate. Be sure to tap off the heart before you transfer it to the second baking tray so that there isn’t any excess chocolate on it.
If you want, after you’re done with the first dipping, put the chocolate covered hearts into the freezer, so that the chocolate can set faster and then repeat the dipping process for extra chocolaty goodness.
Decorate your Oreo truffles with colorful sprinkles or you can even write one-word love messages with edible food pens.
Sweet Sandwich Hearts for Your Valentine
This is a classic, but as we know, they never get old. Making a batch of these will probably not be enough, as they have a tendency to disappear from the tray rather quickly. Make two portions, just in case, everybody around you will be more than grateful and will not be afraid to show it. Of course, you can always think about changing the original recipe by consulting many of the Sun Basket recipes, it’s all up to you. If you’re baking for that special someone, you can even make goodie bags with these devils inside and watch how much they’re going to like it.
You will need:
- 1 large egg
- 5 (70g) tablespoons unsalted softened butter
- 2/3 (150g) cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1 ¼ (160g) cups all-purpose flour and some more for baking paper
- 3/4 cup (96g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- Different size cookie cutters
How the magic happens:
Combine the dry ingredients together – flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. After that, prepare the butter mixture by stirring in sugar, butter and egg together. Combine the flour mixture with butter mixture, stir to make homogenous and then knead until you get dough.
When the dough is done, divide it in half and roll both halves until each is about 1/8 inch thick. After you’re done, put the rolled thin dough on two baking sheets and let it set in the fridge for half an hour.
Preheat oven to 350° (180°C) and make sure to put the racks with in upper and lower thirds of your oven. Start cutting out heart shapes in shapes of 1, 1 ½ , and 2-inches. Do your best to have an even number of cookies for each size, so that you can make little heart sandwiches. Don’t forget to reroll the scraps after you’re done with cutting for the first time, you’ll get more cookies. Spread the cut cookies on a baking sheet with baking paper and freeze it all until they’re hardened (it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes).
Put firm cookies into the oven and keep an eye on them, because they will have different baking times, depending on their size, from 8 to 12 minutes. After they’re done and completely cool, choose a filling that you should then spread on one half of the cookies and use the other half of the batch to cover.
Cookies for Valentine’s Day are a wonderful gift, especially if they’re made with care and dedication. If you want to surprise your loved ones but you don’t have a lot of time, consider using one (or all!) of these easy cookie recipes to make this Valentine’s Day sweeter.