Bake Your Family Some Love - Cookies For Valentine's Day!

Heart-shaped cookies are the essence of Valentine's Day. Bake some love for your family with one of these recipes. They'll love you even more!

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter, unsalted
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon Watkins Vanilla Extract
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons Watkins Baking Powder
1 teaspoon salt

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

In a second bowl, combine and mix well the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir flour into butter mixture 1 cup at a time. Chill dough for 3 to 4 hours.

Roll out dough and cut into heart shapes with cookie cutters or a knife. Bake on a sheet pan or a parchment lined sheet pan in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size of the cookie. Remove cookies to a rack to cool completely.

Frost cookies with your favorite frosting tinted pink with a few drops of red food coloring.

Linzer Heart Cookies
These jam-filled cookies are almost too pretty to eat!

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons Watkins Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Watkins Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Watkins Nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon Watkins Vanilla Extract
Confectioners sugar
1/2 cup raspberry jam, strained or seedless

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium, beat the butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy; beat in the egg and vanilla. Gradually add the flour mixture until combined. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill 1 to 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough to an 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/4-inch heart cutter, cut out heart shapes, rerolling scraps as needed. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Place the heart shapes 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets. Using a small heart cutter, cut out centers from half of the hearts; remove the centers with a small spatula.

Bake the cookies until lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and cool completely.

Set the racks, with cookies still on them, over waxed paper. Sift confectioners sugar over the heart frames. Lightly spread about 1/2 teaspoon of the strained jam over each large uncut heart. Place the heart frames on top of jam-topped cookies.

Enjoy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Eleisia
http://www.notjustvanilla.com/
http://www.everydaynecessities.com/