Valentines Cherry liquer Chocolates and Sugar cookies gift pack

Some simple Valentines sugar cookies and home made cherry liqueur chocolates..Yum!

basic sugar cookie recipe

ingredients:

3 cups (390grams) all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup (227grams) unsalted butter 

room temp

1 cup (200grams) of granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

method:

In a bowl mix together  flour, salt, and baking soda.

In your food processor/mixer place your butter (I cut into small cubes), and sugar and beat until light and fluffy, almost white in colour (approx 3 minutes). 

Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. 

Add the flour mixture and mix until you have a smooth dough. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in centre of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Remove one half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (1 cm). (Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter.) 

If the mixture is too sticky you can add more flour to your surface and roll it into the dough.

Cut out your heart shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to baking sheet. 

Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking. 

Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes (depending on size) or until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

Frost with royal icing, if desired. Be sure to let the royal icing dry completely before storing. (This may take several hours or overnight.)

Frosted cookies will keep several days in an airtight container. Store between layers of parchment paper or wax paper.

Makes about 36 cookies.

I used store bought Royal Icing mix to decorate my cookies, you just mix it with a little water and I added some pink food colouring to get a lovely pink.

I piped around the edges of my cookies with a fine line and then flooded the middle with a thinner mixture of the icing. I then sprinkled mine with tiny silver stars I had left over in my cupboard.

my simple cherry liqueur chocolates

Ingredients:

200gms of dark chocolate (preferably 70%), makes approx 25 chocolates.
25 glace cherries
1/4 cup of a fruit liqueur (I used Creme de Cassis which is a blackcurrant liqueur)
1 plastic flexible chocolate mould
Method:

1. Gather ingredients.

2. Soak the cherries in the liqueur for around 30 mins, overnight is best.

3. break your chocolate into pieces and place in a bowl.

4. Place a steamer over "simmering" water and place your bowl of chocolate in the steamer.  Stir continuously at low heat until the chocolate is completed melted and lovely and shiny.  Remove from heat and leave for around 1-2 mins before pouring.

5. Pour a small amount of chocolate in the base of each individual chocolate mould, I used a teaspoon to do this.  Once they all have around 1cm of chocolate then you place a cherry in each mould.

6. Fill the moulds with the remaining chocolate, making sure not to overfill them.

7. refrigerate until set, this can take up to an hour then turn out the chocolates being careful not to handle as they will mark.

8.  Place your chocolates in a cellophane bag and tie with curling ribbon.

After I made my cookies and chocolates, the next day I packaged them up in cellophane bags, tied them with curling ribbon and placed them in a gift bag which I had filled with crushed tissue paper to raise them up so they would poke out of the tops of the bags.

You then simply add a gift tag, please click "here" for my free download.

You may also like these two lovely valentines deserts:

Valentines fail proof pavlova recipe

Valentines raspberry and strawberry tiramisu in a mason jar


Sharing with:
 "Mop It Up Mondays" at I  Should Be Mopping the Floor
Craft-o-Maniac Monday

Hope your weekend has been, or is a bit drier than Auckland, 

just when I think Summer is finally here it starts to rain again :(

Lee oxo

&

Poppy