Strawberry Heart Cookie

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, some of you may feel the need to bake. Nothing says “I love you” more than sugar, fat, and carbs. Mmmmm Weight Gain.

First some Valentine’s Day fun facts:

• $1.6 Billion will be spent on candy alone for Valentine’s Day
• Valentine comes from the Latin name Valentinus. Specifically Valentine’s Day was meant to honor two Christian saints Valentine of Rome and Valentine of Terni who were killed/martyred by their Roman overlords.
• There are many legends that attribute St. Valentine of Rome with love, but the facts do not necessarily add up.
• The first mention of a “Valentine’s Day” allegedly comes from Chaucer in the late 1300’s

For Mrs. Unmanly Chef and I, Valentine’s Day has never been about gifts or writing cards, rather we like to just go out and have a good meal. Who wants to get stressed out about having to find the perfect gift that represents every ounce of your love? Instead, just go stuff your faces together and bond in the knowing that you are a eating a meal that will take weeks of cardio to burn off.

 

Buying gifts in general for your spouse/partner is overrated (at least on a birthday, anniversary, or holiday), you shouldn’t need a special day or reason to tell that special person in your life that you love them or thought of them. The Unmanly Chef family abides by this rule and it’s worked out well. But back to the recipe.

This strawberry filled cookie sandwich was inspired out of having too much sugar cookie dough on my hands and waaaay too many fun shapes for cookie cutters in my kitchen. Now growing up I was a huge fan of the Pepperidge Farm “Verona” cookie, if you don’t know them by their exact name they are these.

They are little bites of heaven, I would clear through a bag of these if they appeared in my house as a little kid like I was some sort of pig snuffing out truffles. They are buttery, sweet, and the light strawberry jelly filling is delicious.

There isn’t much to this recipe other than you need a heart cookie cutter if you want to make a heart shaped cookie. IF NOT, you need a regular cookie cutter and a smaller similar shaped cookie cutter to create the magical design.

Recipe -Strawberry Heart Shaped Cookies

Ingredients

1 Large cookie cutter and a smaller cookie cutter of the same shape (If you want to make heart shaped cookies, obviously you need a heart shaped cookie cutter)

3 cups of Flour

1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1 1/3 Cup of Sugar

2 Tsp. Vanilla

1 Cup of Cold Unsalted Butter

2 Eggs

Filling

1 Cup of Strawberry Preserve

Method

*Preheat oven to 350F*

Step 1 – Sift Flour, baking powder, and salt

Step 2- Beat cold butter with a standing mixer then slowly add sugar.

Step 3 – Now add the eggs one at a time.

Step 4- Add Vanilla, should have a almost shortbread like consistency.

Step 5- Form the dough into a disc or ball and then refrigerate for at least an hour.

Step 6 – Roll out the dough in portions (probably about 4 portions). Roll-out should be about 1/4 inch thick.

Step 7 – Cut cookies using the large cookie cutter first.

Step 8 – Then using the smaller cookie cutter, use that to press into half of your already large cookies. You are making the outline piece here, the other half of the cookies form the base of the cookie sandwich.

Step 8 – Place on parchment paper and then on a baking sheet.

Step 9 – Bake in oven for 9 minutes or just so bottoms are a little bit brown.

Step 10 -Allow the cookies to cool.

Step 11 – Spread filling across uncut large piece, then lay large cut piece over top of the uncut piece and enjoy!