Homemade Oreo Hearts

Now I've done homemade Oreos before, but given my Type A personality, I couldn't deal with the cookies in them being different shapes and sizes. I was looking through old posts from Bake at 350 the other day, and saw a post for her version of Oreos, and decided I needed to try again (especially since her's were so darn cute). Since I liked my version of the cream filling, I used that again, but tried her recipe for the cookies. And with it being Valentine's Day and all, I made these cookies in a heart shape!

These cookies are cut out cookies, so they require a little more work. I had a ton of trouble getting the dough to stick together, and it was obvious when they were baked. I'm not sure what my problem was, but even if they're hard to get to come together, the taste is totally worth the extra effort. These cookies are the perfect blend of sweet and salty, and would taste great by themselves.

Chocolate Cut Out Cookies

(from Bake at 350)

2.5c flour

1/2c cocoa

1/2t salt

1c butter (unsalted), softened

1c sugar

1 egg

1t vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350, and line baking sheets with parchment.

Stir together the first 3 ingredients, then set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Gradually add in the flour mixture.

Chill the dough for about an hour.

Roll dough onto a surface covered in flour and cocoa (evenly mixed).

Cut out the cookies with a heart shaped cookie cutter.

Press a smaller heart shaped cookies cutter into the center, but not the whole way through (only about halfway).

Bake 7-9 minutes, then let cool.

Meanwhile prepare the filling.

Fill the cookies using a piping bag, or by spreading in the center.

Valentine's Day Cookies

I know it's a little late, but if you're anything like me, you've had your Valentine's Day treats planned for weeks now and have been getting really excited to make them! There have been so many great posts on other blogs this week and I'm thinking I might have to start celebrating Valentine's Day every day so that I can try out all the great ideas I've seen.

This year I made a couple things - cookies, cupcakes and ice cream! I'll slowly be posting those over the next few days, but today I'm going to share my heart shaped sugar cookies with you. I wanted to make them look like candy hearts since those are one of my favorite candies, but my piping skills aren't quite up to par so they didn't come out as planned. (Still tasty though!)

I recently purchased this Ateco food coloring. While I really love the bright vibrant colors, it's been making my royal icing a weird texture, and it hasn't been getting quite as hard as normal.

Here's the sugar cookie recipe I used, and I cut them into various sized hearts. Once cooled, pipe the outline onto the cookies using royal icing. Use a few drops of your favorite food coloring gel to tint the icing whatever color you'd like. To make the icing taste a little better, I added 1/2t of lemon juice. About 1/2 of the royal icing recipe should cover cookies from the whole dough recipe. Reserve a small amount of the icing for lettering.

Fill the cookies with flood icing and let sit overnight.



The next day (when dry), lay a large piece of parchment on the counter or table and sprinkle a generous amount of sanding sugar in the center. I used both white and bright pink sugar, but the white definitely looked better since it was a contrast to the cookie color.

Using the reserved icing, pipe on any words you'd like, and an outline. Immediately dip the cookie into the sanding sugar, then let sit to dry. Once all of the cookies are decorated, pour the excess sugar back into the container.

For the mini cookies, I used the outline icing to fill in the center of the cookies, then pressed a little harder when I put them in the sanding sugar so the icing would spread to the edges in a heart shape.

 

Package each cookies in a cellophane bag to prepare them for your Valentine...or to ship them to your friends and family (get ready Mom & Dad).

Fudgy Oatmeal Bars

So this one was not my favorite recipe, but I'm also not the biggest fan of chocolate desserts unless it's in solid chocolate form. I mean, growing up so close to Hershey, it's not really possible to resist the Great American Chocolate Bar (remember that part of the song?). Anyway, when Jim and I were trying to decide on a dessert one night, he kept shooting down all my deliciously fruity and sweet suggestions. Eventually I gave in and agreed on these (because who can really go without dessert on a Saturday night).

His mom used to make these for him and as everyone knows, mom's cooking/baking can never be beat, so I'm not really sure how satisfied he was with these, but I was a happy girl. These bars are sweet and chocolatey and have just the right amount of texture from the oats, but boy are they rich. If you make these, be sure you have lots of friends to share them with because one little bar will be plenty to satisfy even the biggest craving.

Fudgy Oatmeal Bars

2c packed brown sugar

1c softened butter

2 eggs

1t vanilla extract

2.5c all-purpose flour

1t baking soda

1/2t salt

3c oats

12oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

14oz sweetened condensed milk

2T butter

1t vanilla extract

1/2t salt

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a large rectangular pan.

Mix brown sugar, 1c butter, eggs, and 1t vanilla in a large bowl.

Stir in flour, baking soda, and 1/2t salt, then stir in oats.

Reserve about 1/3 of the oatmeal mixture. Press the remaining mixture into the pan.

Heat chocolate chips, milk, and 2T butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, until the chocolate chips are melted.

Remove from the heat and stir in 1t vanilla and 1/2t salt.

Spread the chocolate mixture over the oats mixture in the pan.

Drop the reserved oats mixture by rounded teaspoons on top of the chocolate mixture.

Bake until golden brown, 25-30 minutes.

Cut into bars while still warm (but not hot).