Valentine's Day Heart Sugar Cookies

“Simple and sweet, pink and white Valentine’s Day heart sugar cookies video decorating tutorial.”

I can't believe that Valentine's Day is just around the corner. It is hard to believe that we are already almost in mid February. This year is already flying by! Do you have plans for Valentine's Day? My boyfriend and I typically keep things pretty low key for Valentine's Day. In fact, we hardly ever celebrate it on the actual day. I love the idea of celebrating Valentine’s day with your girlfriends. It has been fun seeing all of the Galentine's Day parties that are popping up on Pinterest & Instagram. Perhaps next year I will plan a Galentine's day brunch for me and my girl friends. How cute would these cookies be on a dessert table?

I kept these sugar cookies fairly simple using a wet on wet icing technique. Which means that I flooded the cookies then immediately added more royal icing on top so it would blend into the flood icing and dry as an even layer. This allows you to swirl or drag the icing creating pretty designs on your cookie. Don’t be afraid to play around with it. Personally, I like the simple designs best with just a line or simple border of hearts. Decorating with royal icing can be frustrating at first, especially if you don’t have the right consistency of icing. It makes all the difference between an enjoyable decorating experience and a frustrating one.  Personally, if my cookies are going to be all one colour, I tend to use the same consistency of frosting for both outlining and filling/flooding my cookies. This means that I don’t have to mix up multiple batches of icing or fill multiple piping bags. I like to use a 10 second icing - when a knife is dragged through the frosting it should take 10 seconds for the line to disappear. This video is a great explanation.

Valentine's Day Heart Sugar Cookies

You'll Need: 

• Sugar Cookies
• 10 Second Royal Icing 
• Pink & Red Gel Colours* 
• Piping bags, couplers & Tips*
• Tooth picks 

* I used Wilton Red & Pink Gel Colours and Wilton Tips 2 & 3. 

Peanut Butter & Jelly Oatmeal Cookie Sandwiches

Peanut butter & jelly sandwiched between two soft and chewy oatmeal cookies. A fun twist on a childhood classic! 

I didn't think it was possible to improve upon a peanut butter and jelly sandwich until I decided to use cookies instead of bread. Seriously delicious! Peanut butter and jelly is one of my favourite combinations... actually I really just love anything with peanut butter! I decided to fill these cookie sandwiches with peanut butter buttercream rather then just straight peanut butter. The buttercream is full of peanut butter flavour while being light and fluffy. These oatmeal cookies are delicious on their own. They have a great texture, soft and chewy! They remind me of an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie without the chocolate chips - but trust me you won't miss the chocolate chips once you fill these cookies with peanut butter buttercream and your favourite jam. I choose to use store bought strawberry jam, but if you have a favourite homemade jam by all means this is the perfect time to use it! I hope you enjoy these ooey gooey peanut butter and jelly oatmeal cookie sandwiches as much as I do. 

Peanut Butter & Jelly Oatmeal Cookie Sandwiches

Oatmeal Cookies 

Makes: 2 dozen cookies or 1 dozen sandwiches 

Ingredients

1.5 c flour

2 c oats

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 c butter

3/4 c sugar

3/4 c brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside

In a medium sized bowl stir to combine flour, oats, salt, baking soda and baking powder, set aside

In a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy

Add in eggs one at a time scraping down the bowl after each addition. Stir in vanilla

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix on low speed until just combined. The dough will stick to the sides of the bowl and be fairly sticky once combined

Roll approx 1/8 cups of dough into balls, place on prepared cookie sheets and flatten. I baked 12 cookies per sheet

Bake cookies for 9-12 minutes or until cookie edges are golden brown. Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely

Peanut Butter & Jelly Filling

Ingredients

1/2 c butter

1 c icing sugar

1 c peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

Strawberry or Raspberry Jam

Directions

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, on medium speed whip butter until light and fluffy

On medium speed combine whipped butter and icing sugar until just combined. Should resemble a buttercream texture

Mix in peanut butter and vanilla until smooth

Assemble the Cookie Sandwiches

Match cookies by size to make each side of the sandwich. Spread or pipe the peanut butter buttercream on one side of the cookie sandwich. Spread jam on the other. Squish together and enjoy! 

Soft & Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Giant, chewy and soft peanut butter cookies. These peanut butter cookies pair perfectly with a large glass of cold milk.

Peanut butter is one of those things that you either love or hate. Personally, I love it! I may or may not eat it by the spoonful. I remember the first time I made peanut butter cookies using the recipe off the back of the jar. It made SO MANY cookies - or that's what it felt like. Those cookies were amazing right from the oven but once they cooled they were no longer soft and chewy. I wanted  to create a soft and chewy peanut butter cookie that stayed that way once they cooled.  Using a mix of cake flour and all purpose flour the cookie develops a soft and chewy almost like cake like texture. These peanut butter cookies make the perfect snack paired with a large glass of cold milk. 

Peanut Butter Cookies

Yield: Approx. 9 Giant Cookies

Adapted from: Sweet Bake Shop

Ingredients:

3/4 c cake flour

1 c flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 c butter, at room temperature

1/2 c smooth peanut butter

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper

In a medium bowl sift together first four dry ingredients

In the bowl of stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, on medium speed cream together butter and peanut butter until incorporated

With the mixer on medium beat in sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes

Beat in eggs one at a time, scrapping down the side of the bowl after each addition. Mix in vanilla extract.

On low speed, slowly add flour mixture to peanut butter mixture until just incorporated. Be careful not to over mix

For giant cookies, scoop out 1/4c of cookie dough and roll into a ball. Flatten on cookie sheet. Bake max 6 cookies per sheet

Bake cookies for 9-11 minutes or until edges are brown and centre looks set

Allow cookies to cool for 10 minutes on cookie sheets before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely

Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days