Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies

This Valentine's Day try making these sparkling sugar cookies. I had been searching high and low for a sugar cookie recipe that I could use with my heart shaped cookie cutters. I found this Sugar Cookie recipe on the Martha Stewart Everyday Food site. 

My daughter loved dropping the red food coloring into the dough. We made them extra special by pressing sugar sprinkles onto the cut cookies. (Next time I will split the dough in half and add less red, so we can have red and pink cookies!)

When you are done put them in little bags and deliver them to family and friends! Just a little way to say I love you!

Ingredients:
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for surface and more if needed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Red food coloring
Sugar crystals

Directions:

Step 1:
Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add food coloring. Reduce speed to low. Gradually mix in flour mixture. Turn out dough, and divide in half. Flatten each half into a disk, and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.

Step 2:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds of oven. Let one disk of dough stand at room temperature just until soft enough to roll, about 10 minutes. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to just under 1/4-inch thick, adding more flour as needed to keep dough from sticking. Chill in refrigerator until firm, about 30 minutes. Cut out cookies using heart cookie cutters. Transfer to parchment-lined baking sheets as you work. (I used tin foil). Roll out scraps, and repeat once. Repeat with remaining disk of dough. Chill cookies in freezer until very firm, about 15 minutes. Press sugar crystals into chilled, cut cookies.

Step 3:
Bake cookies, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges turn golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Thanks for Reading,
Daniele 

0