Message Hearts and Beautiful Flowers

I realize that Valentine’s Day was three weeks ago, but life has not been too great recently. So, please enjoy this post even though it is three weeks late.

As I mentioned in my Newest Addiction post, I now using Pinterest. I follow Lori the RecipeGirl on Pinterest and Twitter. For Valentine’s Day Lori pinned a link to Kelsey’s Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies post. I was fascinated and decided that I wanted to make them for Hubby and The Offspring for Valentine’s Day.

Instead of making Kelsey’s sugar cookie recipe, I used my sugar cookie recipe because it is on the healthier side. When using a 3” cookie cutter and you get 48 cookies they only have 54 calories each. Now for this recipe, I only got 24 cookies, so more calories, but still not “terrible”.

Cast of Characters: Flour, Sugar, Oil, Egg, Butter, Almond Extract (can use Vanilla), Baking Powder and Salt (the last two are in with the Flour. I started using the Almond Extract this past Christmas and WOW what a GREAT taste!!

In large bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds.

Beat in sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Add oil and egg…

…and almond (or vanilla)…

…beat until combined…

Beat in as much of the flour…

Divide dough in half and place each ball inside a large piece of waxed paper folded over. Using the waxed paper makes it so the dough doesn’t get too sticky and need more flour which will cause it to dry out.

I roll the dough out to about an 1/8th of an inch. I do this before putting it in fridge to chill instead of afterwards because I find it easier to cut the cookies out this way.

When I was making these cookies, just as I was getting ready to put the dough in the fridge I had a “Oh CRAP!” moment… I wanted pink/red cookies!! AGRG, I forgot to put the food coloring in!!

Using a toothpick, I grabbed a “small blob” and added it to the dough.

Looks much better now, don’t you think?

Re-rolled to an 1/8th of an inch…

Then gently lifting one side, slide the cookie sheet underneath it and place in the fridge for 1-2 hours. I prefer longer if possible.

I bought these adorable cookie cutters from Williams-Sonoma. They’re the most expensive cookie cutters I’ve ever bought ($19.95), but I wanted the message novelty.

It comes with some pre-built words (I Love You, Happy, Birthday)…

…and then a bunch of little letters to build words…

HINT: Don’t push too hard when tryig to imprint the words…

When you press gently you get a nice indentation..

I had one little bit left and made a round one…

On a few of the cookies, I added some decorative sugar…

After baking, you get these cute delicate cookies and with the almond extract they have a great taste! 😉

Ma had given me some pink frosting, so I added some almond extract it it to carry the almond flavor all through the cookie. I also added a little milk so I could pipe it around the cookies… downside, I added too much milk and it was too runny.

I was trying to lay the cookies out in a cute little plate and as you can see, I had a bit of a problem handling the cookies…

… my reflexes weren’t fast enough to catch this piece to hit the floor. 🙁

Happy (belated) Valentine’s Day, Hubby and Offspring!! These were their surprises.

Hubby surprised me with beautiful flowers…

His card cracked me sooooo much!

Crap… can you read this??
The front reads, “To My Wife on Valentine’s Day… Honey I you know that all your hard work has not gone unnoticed.”
The inside reads, “I’ve been watching you from the couch during commercials. Love You!”

What did you do for Valentine’s Day?