Happy Valentine's Day!

     Tomorrow is Valentine's Day...and the 100th day of school!  To mark this double occasion I baked for school and also for a Valentine celebration this evening with my family.

Here are some Valentine's I made for Jax and Ace.  

     I have made chocolate dipped heart cookies before.  In the past I have used refrigerated sugar cookie dough.  This time I decided to use a Martha Stewart recipe for Shortbread Cookies.  There is a lot less sugar and I had all of the ingredients handy so it was easier than going out to buy dough.   This was a pretty straight forward recipe.  The dough was a bit crumbly after chilling.  I found that if I kneaded it together a bit it was easier to work with.  Martha said that the cookies come out "more beautiful" if you do not reroll the dough.  I would have only had about four cookies if I didn't reroll and I think my cookies are gorgeous!

Shortbread Cookies Dipped in Chocolate

Ingredients
2 sticks of unsalted butter
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups of flour
3 oz semisweet chocolate chips


Method
1. Soften butter and mix with powdered sugar and vanilla until creamy.
2. Add flour and salt.  Mix until well blended.
3. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
4. Roll out dough on a floured surface and use heart cookie cutters to make cookies.  Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet and chill for 30 minutes.
5. Heat oven to 300 degree and bake cookies until golden, about 18 minutes.
6. When cookies have cooled completely, dip in melted  chocolate. (See suggested methods below)

*Chocolate can be melted in the microwave.  Heat for one minute and then take out and stir.  Then heat for an additional minute.  I melted my chocolate using a double boil method, which is super fancy.  I heated some water in a saucepan and put a metal mixing bowl over the hot water.  I've never tried this before but it worked really well.  A smaller bowl works best for melting because you can dip the cookies deeper into the chocolate. 

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Ingredients
Strawberries
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Method
1. Melt chocolate chips in the microwave.  One minute in, stir.  Repeat.
2. Dip washed and dried strawberries in chocolate.
3. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Put in refrigerator to harden.  
*I saw something online about dipping a fork into melted white chocolate and then drizzling the white chocolate over the dark chocolate.  I didn't have any white chocolate, but those berried looked really pretty.

Mini Chocolate Lava Cakes

Ingredients
8 oz semi sweet chocolate chips
1 stick butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
butter to coat muffin tin
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup vanilla ice cream
1 tsp espresso powder
1 muffin tin

Method
1. Preheat over to 375 degrees
2. Place a small metal bowl over a pot of simmering water.  Melt the chocolate and butter and then stir in the vanilla.
3. In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, and salt.  Sift these ingredients into the chocolate mixture and mix well.  Add the eggs, one at a time.    Make sure each egg is fully incorporated into the mixture before adding the next egg.  Beat on high until the batter is creamer and appears lighter in color.  This should take about 4 minutes.  Chill the mixture.
4. Coat the top and each cup of the muffin tin with butter.  Dust with cocoa powder and shake out excess.  Spoon the mixture into the pan.  Bake for 10-11 minutes.  The outsides should be cake like and the centers should be gooey.  
5.  While the cakes are in the oven, melt the ice cream in a small saucepan.  Stir in the espresso and spoon over cakes.

The Taste Test
    My friend Ali suggested this recipe.  It is from the Food Network.  I was so impressed with these little cakes!  They were so easy to make and tasted better than any lava cake I've ever had from a restaurant.  This recipe is perfect for a dinner party because you can make the batter ahead of time and leave it to chill in the fridge.  When you are ready for dessert, you can pop the muffin tin into the oven and 10 minutes later you have a delicious individual cakes.    I baked them for 10 minutes and they came out with a very gooey center.  They were a real hit!