VALENTINES DAY COOKIES

Valentines Day Cookies

Easy gingerbread recipe made with love

The amazing thing about gingerbreads is that they are relevant all year round! You can enjoy this simple and delicious recipe not only on Valentines Day but also at Easter, Christmas or for Thanksgiving! I particularly enjoyed the organic look and the wabi sabi style of the cookies. I will be using plain sugar/egg white frosting. However, if you wish to add some colors to the decorating, there are some great natural options without harmful additives. I am not a big fan of bright chemical colours in food so I always look for healthier, ideally possible-to-make-at-home options. These include beetroot, spirulina, butterfly pea, raspberries or turmeric.

Print the template, make some hearts!

Just in case you don’t have a heart shaped cookie cutter at home, I’ve made a FREE Printable template for you. You can easily print the heart, cut the shape out and trace it onto the rolled-out cookie dough. You can decorate the hearts in any way you like – make folk-style marks, flowers and realistic shapes or write loving words. The main design that I chose for my heart was the floral lace. It’s really simple, here’s how I made it!

Valentines Day Cookies

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Baking Time: approx. 15 minutes
Making: 4 – 5 large heart cookies

Dough:

• 400g of white flour
• 150g of icing sugar
• 50g of unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbl spoon of honey
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 flat teaspoon of gingerbread spices (you can mix your own, more bellow!)
• water or one whisked egg yolk to coat the cookies while baking

Icing:

• 1 egg white
• 150g of icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch – optional

Tools:

• FREE Printable heart template
• cookie decorating tube or disposable bags
• fine sieve
• non-stick marble rolling pin
• baking tray
• mixer

Instructions

Making the dough

Mix all dough ingredients together until you get a nice lump of smooth dark beige dough. If you have the time, leave the dough in cool place overnight for all the ingredients and fragrances to combine. This is optional so if you don’t that’s completely fine. If you can’t get the pre-mixed gingerbread spice mix, you can prepare your own.

Roll out the dough and trace the FREE Printable heart template to get the cookie shapes. Place them onto a baking tray lined with a sheet of baking paper. Alternatively, spread some butter inside the baking tray and sprinkle a bit of flower on top. This will prevent the cookies from sticking onto the tray surface. Bake for 15 minutes at 155 degrees C. Just as you take the cookies out, coat them lightly with a whisked egg yolk. Do this while the cookies are still very hot to help the egg to cook. It will create beautiful glazed surface. Let the cookies cool down completely before decorating.

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Don’t miss more Valentine’s Day ideas:
Valentines Day FREE Printable Stickers
Valentines Day Easy Craft Decorations
Valentines Day DIY Toppers – FREE Printable
Painted Valentine Champagne Bottle
Valentines Day Love Bird
Romantic Kir Royale Cocktail Recipe
Valentine Hoya Wax Plant Gift Idea

Gingerbread spices

Mix a pinch of each of these ground spices – ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg and aniseed/star anise. You can also add a pinch of scraped vanilla pod seeds.

Decorating the Valentines Day cookies with sugar icing

Firstly, strain the icing sugar through the fine sieve into a bowl. Do the same with the egg yolk to help the ingredients combine well. If you skip this step you may have issues with small lumps blocking the decorating tube. Whisk all ingredients together until you have a smooth creamy whick-ish paste. Fill up the decorating tube and onto the fun part!

 

Creating a floral lace design

Decorating Valentines Day cookies with lace is really simple. First, trace the heart shape by making a line all along the edge. Create a mesh by making close thin vertical and horizontal lines. Leave the icing to dry for a moment so that the floral design doesn’t blend into the mesh. Then make the flower by making dots into the mesh as if they were embroidered cross stitches or french knots. Some for petals, some for the stem and some for the leaf.

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