Saturday 14 February 2009

Glitter Heart Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Valentines Day is a time for romance and love with chocolates and sweet treats normally at the centre of things but nothing can beat the love, passion and enjoyment that go into baking your own treats! My boys love cookies and what could be better than baking them a batch of these Glitter Heart Cookies to show them how much I love them! The original recipe for these cookies is the Gold Dust Cookies I made over Christmas, courtesy of Nigella Christmas. I loved the idea of using the recipe and turning them into Valentine themed cookies with heart shaped cookie cutters and pink glitter. If you’re looking for a simple but fun cookie recipe, try these delicious lovable cookies!
Glitter Heart Cookies

Makes about 30, depending on size

Ingredients
90g soft butter
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon ground ginger (or vanilla extract)
200g plain flour, plus more for sprinkling
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon fine salt
Edible pink dust or glitter flakes

Preheat the oven to 180oC/gas mark 4 and line a baking sheet or two with baking parchment or Bake-O-Glide.

Cream the butter and sugar together until whipped soft and pale, then beat in the egg, followed by the ginger (or vanilla), flour, baking powder and salt and continue mixing until it all comes together to make a soft dough.

Form into 2 discs, wrap each one in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place a disc of dough on it and sprinkle a little more flour on top. Then roll out to a thickness of about 5mm.

Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the biscuits a little apart on the lined baking sheet/s. Keep the scraps of the first disc, to mix with the scraps of the second and roll and cut, re-roll and cut, until you’ve used up the mixture. This is wonderfully pliable dough, which makes it an unstressful joy to work with.

Bake in the oven for 18-12 minutes: this depends on their shape, how many sheets are in the oven at the same time, and whether on the upper or lower shelf, though you can swap them around after 5 minutes. When they’re ready, expect them to be tinged a pronounced pale gold around the edges; they’ll be softish still in the middle, but will harden on cooling.

Take the sheets out of the oven, remove the cookies, with a flat, preferably flexible, spatula to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Using a small (unused) paintbrush or eyeshadow brush, dip in the edible pink dust or glitter flakes, and give each cookies its gilded coating.

18 comments:

lilmizlynn said...

Maria, Your cookies looks sweet and yumme!! Happy Valentine and hv a good weekend. :)

Beth (jamandcream) said...

I have some edible pink glitter in my cupboard!!!!! Might just have to make these

Sally said...

They look very pretty Maria.
The dough sounds very similar to the ones I made today *Sweet heart Biscuits*

Katiecakes said...

What pretty biscuits. Hope you have a lovely Valentines day!

Katie xox

Reeni said...

How pretty and delicious!! Happy Valentine's Day!

Ivy said...

Happy Valentine's. The cookies look beautiful.

JillyB said...

Maria, I love the way those sparkle. What a great thing for Valentine's Day.

MrsB said...

wow - you have been so busy! I can't believe how much you have been baking since I last visited! I love the heart biscuits, they look lovely, i need to try this recipe and your cupcakes below are just perfect, I bet your husband really enjoyed these for Valentines!

I know what you mean about baking and losing weight it is so tough, i struggle too with this but I love baking so much I can't bear the thought of not doing it! Your banana loaf looks great, i think i will definitely have to try this and so low in caleries!

Oh my! Apple pie! said...

I love that pink glitter, I shall be buying some for my daughter birthday. They are like Barbie hearts, cute!

Sherry Trifle - Lovely Cats said...

Lovely cookies - the glitter makes them look really Valentines Day special.

Anne said...

They look so pretty! I have some heart shaped cutters that I've not got round to using, will have to dust them off I think!

x

Finla said...

I love the gold dush you have added ontop and the hearts look so prfect and beautiful.

The Blonde Duck said...

Glitter and cookies? I'm in love!

Nic said...

Lovely, so pretty and glittery!

Maria said...

I love the glitter! So fun! Hope you had a nice weekend!

Deborah said...

I hope you had a wonderful Valentines Day! These cookies look delicious!

arista said...

They really do look very pretty

Stephanie said...

Edible pink glitter sprinkled over heart shaped cookies?!?! is this not every girl's dream!?