Raspberry Shortbread Heart Cookies

I’ve been so focused on the Super Bowl lately that I completely forgot that two of my other favourite occasions (food-wise anyway) are fast approaching: Pancake Tuesday and Valentine’s Day! 

I know that some people feel strongly against Valentine’s Day as a holiday, but I love any chance to bake adorable treats as a way of showing my love toward my family and friends.  So even though I just wanted to sit down when I got home from a long day yesterday, instead I baked you some heart-shaped cookies!

I first saw these double thumbprint heart cookies from Better Homes and Gardens on Munchkin Munchies and thought they were such a great idea.  Surprisingly, I haven’t seen them anywhere else on the web, so I wanted to share my own version of them!

I ended up using a shortbread thumbprint cookie recipe from All Recipes instead of the original cookie recipe from Better Homes & Gardens because I’ve tried this one many times and know that it turns out well.

These are really easy to make – they’re just like regular thumbprint cookies but instead of making one thumbprint, you make two to shape the cookie into a heart!  Then you just fill each heart shaped indentation with jam and bake them – I like to add the jam before baking so it cooks down a little and stays put in the cookie, but you could try adding it afterwards if you like the looks of fresh jam better.

I left a few cookies plain, as you can see below, but decided to add a drizzle of dark chocolate to most cookies to make them extra pretty!  And it turned out that I also preferred the taste of the cookies that had the chocolate – it was just enough to provide a nice complement to the shortbread and raspberry jam.

Even if you’re one of those Valentine’s-hating people, you can’t possibly hate heart-shaped cookies, can you?  Just give these to your friends as a way of showing your appreciation toward them, or keep them all to yourself if you like, I won’t tell!

Raspberry Shortbread Heart Cookies

Idea from Better Homes & Gardens, Recipe adapted from All Recipes

Makes about 18 cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup seedless raspberry (or strawberry) jam

1/4 cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or a medium bowl), cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.  Mix in the vanilla extract until combined.  Mix in the flour until dough comes together.  Roll dough into 3/4-inch balls, and place pairs of balls side by side (touching) on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Use your thumbs or fingers to press two indentations in each pair of doughballs, pressing in the center to form a heart shape.  You will need to shape the bottom of the cookie to form a perfect heart.   Once all pairs of cookies have been formed into hearts, space them about 2 inches apart.

Transfer jam to a ziplock bag and snip off the corner.  Use bag to pipe jam into each heart-shaped indentation, filling the indentation to the very top (the jam will cook down a little when it bakes).  Transfer cookies to the freezer for about 10-15 minutes – this step is important because the cookies will have warmed up from being handled and could spread too much in the oven unless you cool them down.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350°F. 

Bake cookies in preheated oven for 14-16 minutes, until bottoms are light golden brown.  If they have spread too much after baking, you can try to gently push them back into a heart shape immediately after removing from oven.  Let cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once cookies are cooled, melt chocolate chips in microwave and transfer to a ziplock bag.  Snip off a very tiny corner, and use to drizzle chocolate over the cookies.

Shortbread Cookies with Candy Cane & Dark Chocolate

Even though I don't like candy canes, I love them in cookies and other baked goods, and lately I feel like I've been putting candy canes and peppermint extract in everything! And as my favourite cookies are shortbread, it didn't take long for me to think of making candy cane shortbread!

My first try at candy cane shortbread turned out to be more of the crunchier shortbread than the melt-in-your-mouth variety.  Still good, but not quite what I wanted.  So I tried again with this recipe and ended up with just what I wanted!

These are just a standard buttery shortbread cookie with crushed candy cane sprinkles throughout the dough, along with a dip in dark chocolate and sprinkle of candy cane for a festive chocolate peppermint flavour.  They're really easy to make and look so pretty with all their red and green and sparkles!

I cannot believe there's only about a week until Christmas!  I just got back from a little weekend trip and realized that I still have about a billion recipes I had planned on trying out before Christmas, I've only bought about half the gifts I need to, and almost none of the ones I have purchased have arrived yet, as I ordered most of them online.  You'd think I'd have learned my lesson from last year when a couple of my gifts didn't arrive on time, but I just can't resist the convenience of online shopping! 

So I'm going to be a busy girl this week baking, shopping, and constantly checking the mail for parcels, but hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in a few more recipes to share with you guys!

Shortbread Cookies with Candy Cane & Dark Chocolate

Adapted from Naked Cupcakes

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup icing sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

~1/4 cup crushed candy canes (I crush mine in a food processor so I have a mix of fine powder and chunks)

~1/3 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy.  In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, icing sugar and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the butter in two additions, blending after each to combine into a soft dough.  Stir in the candy cane.

Refrigerate mixture for at least 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 300°F.

Roll cookies into 1” round balls and place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, a couple of inches apart.  Note that the parchment paper is important – I tried baking some on an ungreased cookie sheet and some on Silpat and both spread, but the ones I baked on parchment paper kept their shape.  Use a fork to flatten each ball. 

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until edges are light golden brown.  Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before carefully transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Once cookies are cool, melt chocolate chips in a small bowl.  Dip the edge of each cookie into the chocolate and set back on the wire rack, over a pan or parchment paper to catch any mess.  Sprinkle crushed candy cane over the chocolate.  Let chocolate harden before storing cookies in a container.

Chocolate Cherry Almond Breakfast Quinoa

First off, sorry for the lack of blog activity lately!  I brought my laptop (aka my only computer) in to get fixed the other day because it was heating up a lot and the fan was always running so loudly that I couldn't even bring it to meetings anymore.  I thought it would be a quick fix and I'd get it back at the end of the day, but it turns out it's in much worse shape than I thought and it had to be sent away for up to two weeks!  I tried not to overreact too much when they told me that, but for a person who is on their laptop pretty much every single second of the day and depends on it for everything, it's hard to see it taken apart into little pieces and sent away, and to be left with no computer!  Luckily I was able to get a backup of what was on there today so I can steal Ryan's computer for a bit to write up a quick blog post so you guys don't think I forgot about you!

Because I can only type at a fraction of my normal speed on an unfamiliar keyboard, I thought today would be a good day to share a quick and easy recipe.  And since I just shared five ways to use quinoa in a healthy summer salad, I thought it would be fun to follow that up with a healthy, summery way to eat quinoa for breakfast!

Breakfast quinoa is kind of like oatmeal, but with more protein and less mushiness.  Cooking the quinoa in vanilla almond milk gives it a sweet and nutty flavour, and it's very hands-off so you can easily prepare it on a weekday morning while you're getting ready for work.  Combine it with fresh cherries, crunchy almonds, and a tiny bit of dark chocolate chips to add the perfect bit of sweetness, and you have a pretty amazing breakfast!

Chocolate Cherry Almond Breakfast Quinoa

Recipe by Once Upon a Cutting Board

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vanilla almond milk (or unsweetened milk + sweetener of choice)

1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed

1/2 cup pitted quartered cherries

2 tablespoons sliced or slivered almonds

1 tablespoon dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan.  Add quinoa, cover, reduce to a low simmer, and cook 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat until golden brown and fragrant, which should only take a few minutes.

Remove quinoa from heat, keep covered, and let sit 5 minutes, until milk is absorbed. If you are using unsweetened milk, you may wish to add a bit of sweetener at this point (to taste, you could use agave, honey, or brown sugar), then recover and let sit 5 minutes.

Add cherries, almonds, and chocolate chips to the quinoa, stir, and serve warm.

Healthy Mint Chocolate "Ice Cream"

A while ago I posted about one of my favourite ways to use up ripe bananas – in a one-ingredient “ice cream” that’s made by simply blending frozen bananas in a food processor. When I first discovered this I was amazed at how easy and quick it was to make soft serve at home, and that it was completely guilt-free too!

The blog world has exploded with different versions of this amazing one-ingredient ice cream, some that keep it pretty guilt-free and others that add a bit more fat but still sound so delicious! When I saw this recipe for a mint chocolate version on Girl Cooks World, I knew I had to make it immediately. It helped that I happened to have a fresh bunch of mint to use up, and the other ingredients were pantry staples (there are always ripe bananas in my freezer).

I changed the recipe slightly by adding some cocoa powder so it would have a stronger chocolate flavour (hence the brown colour instead of green). The result was amazing! The mint and chocolate flavours really came through strongly, so you didn’t really notice the taste of the bananas. I think if you served this to an unknowing person, you would have a hard time convincing them it’s healthy because it tastes so good!

There are lots of other versions of banana “ice cream” out there that I’m dying to try next. Here are just a few if you’re looking for some inspiration!

Two Ingredient Banana Peanut Butter Ice Cream on Two Peas & Their Pod

Carrot Cake Soft Serve on Oh She Glows

Pecan Banana Ice Cream on The Slow Roasted Italian

Fudgsicle Soft Serve on Oh She Glows

Healthified Supreme Chunky Monkey Ice Cream on Healthful Pursuit

Healthy Mint Chocolate “Ice Cream”

Adapted from Girl Cooks World

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 frozen ripe bananas, broken into chunks

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves

1 tablespoon dark chocolate chips

Directions:

Process the first three ingredients together until mixture reaches a soft serve texture. Add chocolate chips and pulse a few times until well combined.

Serve immediately for a soft-serve consistency, or put in the freezer to firm up first, if desired.