Sweet Valentine Sugar Cookies

Summer travels and family visits. What always brings us together? Well food of course!

Visiting my family in the states recently and have been surrounded by tiny cousins. Baking with my grandma was always one of my fav things to do when I was their age, so I suggested we make Valentine’s Day cookies for the rest of the family... and the kids loved it!

These are really easy to make, and it’s great creative fun for little ones as well. We made our own icing and used pumpkin seeds like confetti for decorating.

I use a combination of various flours that I like to have on-hand for baking, as they all have their own unique properties and textures to benefit different recipes in their own wonderful ways. Rice and coconut flour are both very fine and make for a great dough base for sugar cookies. Amaranth has a glutinous property which is really nice for these as it helps them stick together and keeps them chewy.

Give these a go for an easy way to say something sweet that is made with love and won’t break the bank ;) 

IMG_0078.JPEG

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

  • 1 cup rice flour

  • 1/2 cup coconut flour

  • 1/2 cup almond flour

  • 3/4 cup amaranth flour

  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

  • 1 cup butter softened

  • 1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar

  • 1 egg

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 FOR THE ICING

  • 2 1/2 cups organic confectioners sugar

  • 1/4 cup almond milk

  • 1 Tablespoon maple syrup

  • squeeze of lemon

You’ll also need a rolling pin and cookie cutter - we went with the heart shape of course!

Begin by setting your butter up to soften. Microwaves aren’t really my thing, so I like to do it the old fashioned way, and I feel like you get a better consistency when exercising a little bit of patience.

Chop butter into small cubes and place in a small glass bowl or mason jar. Then place mason jar inside of a slightly larger glass bowl. Pour boiling water around the sides, in between the two. While butter is melting, sift all dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.

Stir butter occasionally until melted to a thick creamy liquid, just before it goes clear & clarified. You might have to refill the water on the butter once if it goes cold, by dumping out about half of the old water and adding more boiled water.

IMAGE.JPG

In a large mixing bowl or kitchen aid mixer, whisk together melted butter and sugar until smooth and sugar begins to melt. Then add egg and vanilla extract. Whisk until creamy smooth.

Begin to add flour mixture. If you are using a kitchen aid with whisk setting you might want to switch to another attachment. Dough should become thick and malleable. 

Chill dough in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes. 

Using parchment paper or a silicone mat, roll dough out with rolling pin. If the dough is sticky, use a little flour when rolling it out. Rice flour works great for rolling dough. 

 Roll to about 0.5cm and make your cutouts! This is really fun for the kiddos.

Place on parchment lined baking sheets 5cm apart.  Bake for 5 minutes just until lightly golden on the edges.

Re-roll excess dough and cut again until finished.

It’s great to test out a first batch to see your oven settings and test for the need for any adjustments. 

FullSizeRender.jpg

NOW FOR THE REALLY FUN PART

Time for icing! We whipped together ingredients and then scooped a little bit into smaller ramekins so that we could create all the shades of love.

You can find natural food dyes at any health food market or online.

Use toothpicks to create swirling patterns between different colours, or a spatula to create an ‘ombre’ effect. 

There’s so many options! It’s basically painting food. One of the rare times it’s actually okay to play with our food. After all, that’s how we connect, right? 

These cookies are totally gluten free. This recipe is certainly not lacking in its sweet side, but I’ve used organic and minimally processed sweetners.

Can be made vegan if desired, by replacing the egg with substitute of your choice, and the butter swapped out for coconut oil. This WILL make for crispier cookies, so keep a close watch on them during baking!.

IMG_0076.JPEG

Yes, the icing will harden and have a gentle shell on them! Share them with all the special someone’s in your life today.

It was so nice to be able to encourage the kids to make something themselves as gifts for family members. Baking is also a bit of a science, and what’s batter than fun learning with food?

Get creative. Spread the love, and most importantly;

HAVE FUN

Happy Love Hearts Day,

xx

- Ash

Ashleyrecipes, sugar cookies, cookies, gluten freeComment