Ruby Chocolate Dipped Embossed Sugar Cookies

Since I made my favorite guy his own batch of Valentine's Day Peanut Butter Blossoms, I figured the kiddos could probably use a proclamation of my love, too - in cookie form.

Back during the Christmas holidays, I bought this amazing embossed rolling pin at the Budapest Christmas market. Sadly, I lost the business card of the artist, but you can Google search "embossed rolling pins", and find all different patterns, to fit any occasion.

I loved the one that I bought because it was reminiscent of some of the traditional Hungarian (or on broader terms, Eastern European) folk imagery. I've been dying to use it!

On a slightly sad note, my former sugar cookie dough and I on are a break. I want to be like, "it's not you, it's me", but really, I don't know who is at fault. The last couple times I've used it my cookies have spread to INSANE sizes and have lost all definition. I was on the search for the perfect "non-spread" sugar cookie dough recipe, as I really wanted the pretty pattern on these to stay defined and crisp. I decided to use one by Design, Eat, Repeat. I liked that it didn't need to be chilled. Well... it was okay. I cut out and baked a few cookies to start with, and felt like they were spreading more than I'd like. So, I cut out the rest, then let them sit in the fridge for maybe 15-20 minutes, and they turned out much better - but still spread more than "advertised". She has a picture on her blog post with the cookie cutter on top of her baked cookie, to show that there was basically no spread - I don't know what she did, but mine definitely spread, even with chilling a bit.

So, I'm still on the search for the perfect recipe.

That said, I will give you the recipe as I ended up using it, with you, sweet reader keeping in mind that if you have a favorite no-spread sugar cookie recipe, definitely use that! Also, hook a girl up! Let me in on your secret!

For these cookies specifically, you'll need these tools:

- a rolling pin with a thickness gauge (like this one, that I got for Christmas). Okay, this one isn't a "need", but I've found it to be really helpful.

- embossed rolling pin (you could just as easily cut out plain hearts and dip them, too. This just makes them a little "extra").

- Standing mixer

- Offset spatula

- Heart-shaped cookie cutter (any other shape will do too, but it's fun for Valentine's Day)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter (softened at room temperature - approx 2 hours)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

150 gr ruby chocolate

sprinkles of your choice - I found the cutest ones yet, here. (I also really liked them with just the chocolate. They looked a little more "elegant".)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F / 180 C.

2. Cream together butter and sugar on medium setting for about 20-30 seconds.

3. While mixer is going add egg and vanilla extract.

4. On a low speed add in baking powder and salt.

5. Still on the low speed, add the flour 1/2 cup at a time.

6. Mix until flour just combined.

7. Pour onto a slightly floured surface. Kneed into a ball for about 10 seconds, then flatten into a disc shape.

8. Using your (lightly floured) rolling pin with thickness gauges, roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Firmly roll the (lightly floured) embossed rolling pin over the dough, creating the gorgeous pattern.

9. Dip your cookie cutter in flour, find the part of the dough that fits it the best, and cut it out. Continue until you've used up all your dough, but do try hard not to re-kneed your dough over and over again. Makes 20-30 cookies, depending on size.

10. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Using an offset spatula, lift out the cookies and place them on the lined baking sheet.

11. Place the baking sheet in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.

12. Remove the baking sheet from the fridge, and bake for 7-9 minutes, depending on size. (You can see in these two pictures - the top one was the first batch that I didn't chill. They got a little deformed. The second picture is of the ones I chilled. They kept their shape better.)

13. Allow cookies to fully cool. (10 minutes in baking sheet, then until room temperature on a cooling rack.)

14. While waiting for the cookies to cool, using the "Dutch oven method", melt the ruby chocolate. (A metal bowl over a pot of boiling water. Make sure the water level in the pot is low enough that it doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl.)

15. Take each cookie, dip it partially in the melted ruby chocolate. Allow excess to drip off, then place on a sheet of baking paper.

16. If desired, use sprinkles at this point.

17. Allow to fully cool. Keep in a cool, dry air tight space.

18. Take adorable pictures - because, memories. <3 

Extra tip:

- Ruby chocolate is a bit of a novelty, and I hated to let any go to waste. I had some left over after dipping all the cookies, so I poured it into a silicone ice cube tray, placed it in the fridge for it to set up, and then moved the chocolate cubes to a ziplock - ready to be quickly melted for a drizzle got another day.

If you decide to try this recipe, I would LOVE to know how it goes! Please feel free to leave a comment. :)

Valentine's Day Peanut Butter Blossoms

I am not a huge fan of peanut butter. Shhh...

But my favorite guy IS! So, for Valentine's Day I decided to make a batch of peanut butter blossoms just for him!

Valentine's Day of course means hearts, so I set out looking for chocolate hearts... I could not find them ANYWHERE!! They all had some kind of filling! I finally found some plain Milka hearts, but then were large and thin. 

So, I decided to make my cookies bigger too, and double up on the chocolate hearts for a nice chocolate to cookie ratio.

They turned out super cute, and hopefully made my honey feel very loved. So now I'm sharing the recipe with you!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter at room temp.

1/2 cup sugar 

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg at room temperature

2 tbs milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

48 large Milka hearts

extra sugar in bowl

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl combine the ingredients in order given (except for chocolate and extra sugar).

2. Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C. 

3. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.

4. Scoop out approx 2 tbs cookie dough, roll into ball, roll in sugar and place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. 

3. Flatten top slightly.

4. Bake for 12 minutes, until edges slightly golden brown.

5. Remove from oven, set on heat-safe surface.

6. Gently press 2 chocolate hearts stacked on top of each other onto the cookie, until cookie slightly cracks around edges. (Do this step as soon after they come out of the oven as possible.)

7. Using a spatula transfer cookies to a wire cooling rack, and allow to fully cool. (Because you have to wait for the chocolate to fully harden back up too, it'll take a little longer than other cookies.)

Makes 24 cookies

+ If you were able to find chocolate hearts that are about the same size as chocolate kisses, or one Milka chocolate square, make your cookie balls 1 tbs size and bake for 9-10 minutes. There is also no need to flatten them down at this size. Will make approx 48 cookies.

So, happy Valentine's Day to my favorite peanut butter loving guy!  

You're simply the best!

Valentine's Day is for... preschoolers!

I've always loved Valentine's Day.  Not the gooey, commercial part of it.  The part where you take time out of your busy schedule to tell the special people in your life how much you mean to them. That part.

So, you know I got my kids involved!  I found these adorable metal pink and blue mail boxes at the Target dollar section (where I would be very happy to live out the rest of my days).  

One of my awesome parents bought me some heart stickers, and they went to town decorating them (with 15 stickers, which was our number of the week).  They turned out absolutely adorable!

Check'em out!

Once they all had their mailboxes, I set up a mail center, printed out a page with their pictures and names next to them, so they would see how to write each others names, and had them all write each other valentines.  They loved it!  It was great practice for them, writing someone else's name, besides their own.

After this, we made melted crayon hearts.

I found this on marthastewart.com, however like most things I've ever tried from her website, mine didn't look quite like hers.  Not bad, just not the same.

For these cute crayon hearts, you'll need:

Crayons with the paper taken off (any color, but I went with Valentine's Day colors, reds, pinks, purples)

Wax paper

Pencil sharpener

Rags

Iron

Scissors

The first challenge was actually getting the paper off the crayons.  Apparently that only happens when you DON'T want it to. 

Once that was over, I ripped off A4 size sheets of wax paper.  I put one in front of my kids, then had them shave crayons onto.  When they had enough, I put another sheet of wax paper on top of it.  

Here's the tricky part.  The wax leaks.

So, make sure you have at least two rags.  Put one underneath the wax papers, the other one on top, and iron away.  Keep it on medium, going up a little at a time if you need to.  Press the iron on the rag.  If you start to slide it, it'll mix the wax together, and look different.  If you just set it on the rag, then all the colors will stay intact.  Make sure to check the rag, because the crayon will leak.  You don't want to ruin your iron, or the next thing you're going to iron.  Once all the crayon is melted, I drew a heart on it, and had them cut on the line.  

Snip-snip, and...

Everything was so girly this week, that I wanted to do something for the boys that was fun.  So, since we were doing the letter "Vv", I decided to do the classic volcano experiment.

Incase you're not familiar with it, here's what you'll need:

5 tbsp vinegar

1/3 cup water

4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp dishwasher liquid

Red food coloring (I actually used sugar sprinkles, because I didn't have any dye on hand)

Brown construction paper

Add baking soda and dishwasher fluid to water. 

(I put it in the vase I used for the inside of the volcano, then I wrapped it in brown construction paper to make it look more like a real volcano)

In a separate container, combine vinegar and red food coloring.

  When you're ready for the eruption pour the vinegar mixture into the water.

And.... volcano!

That day, for our craft we made our own volcanos to take home.  

You'll need:

Brown paper bag

Half pages of red, orange and yellow construction paper

Rubber band

Have the kids cut the pieces of paper in strips (but not all the way through), then open up the bag, blow into it, so it puffs up, stick the cut up paper in the neck, and tie it off with a rubber band.  (I also had them write the letter "V" on it, so their parents would have a better chance of recognizing them. :)

Finally, on Valentine's Day, I put a bunch of my letter stamps out, bought some conversation hearts, and had them copy what they saw on the heart onto paper.

It was great for letter recognition, print awareness and fine motor skills.  They turned out pretty cute:

Then, we had our fabulous preschool Valentine's Day dance, which was so much fun!

They actually danced, and had a good time, and the teachers did a wonderful job decorating.  Here's a picture of my crazy class!

Post-Valentine's Day Sugar High

Valentine's Day is baker and crafter heaven.  At least for me it is.  It's when you get to get away with drawing hearts on things, using glitter paint and bake pink monstrosities. :)

The only baking I really did this season was making cake pops with our wonderful youth group girls.  We're always coming up with new ways to raise funds for our youth group.  We decided to make cake pop "bouquets".  Each of these bouquets consisted of three cake pops.  Red velvet and strawberry cake with chocolate and vanilla candy coating- yumm.

These are our awesome girls.  Those were so scrumptious!

For Valentine's Day my mom sent us a dozen Georgetown Cupcake cupcakes.  They are who we used for our wedding, and they're simply the best!

Because my parents live so far away, and don't get experience these things with us, We set up our camera to take multiple shots, so they could see us opening the box of cupcakes.  I love that my husband supports these kinds of crazy ideas. :)

We love these cupcakes so much!  We were super excited.

We got the Valentine's Day dozen.  They were so amazing!

This is what my night looked like: Cupcakes and Roman Holiday.  Pretty awesome Valentine's Day!

There are not too many words to describe how yummy this Strawberry Lava Fudge one is!

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day, no matter how or who you spent it with!

Keep the love and cupcakes flowing!