Valentines Day Cookies

Before Cerinthus, Valentine's Day was, for me, a chocoholic holiday. Although I am no longer a real chocoholic (see my blogpost on the subject) I do occasionally indulge myself. Today I decided to make some chocolate shortbread to celebrate the holiday, since Cerinthus is not around. A recipe came up on my iGoogle and I decided to modify it and try it. If you love chocolate, these are the cookies for you. They are rich and delicious-- but not too sweet-- and can be made into hearts for a special occasion.

Chocolate Shortbread

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa (the recipe suggested Hershey's Special Dark because it makes the cookies black and they look really cool).
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup butter (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2.5 tsp vanilla

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325F and take out two non-stick baking sheets or line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt in a bowl. (Do not skip this step as cocoa powder has a tendency to clump. You want the dry ingredients sifted to ensure a tender cookie.) Set aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar by hand. Then add the vanilla and mix in. If you do not want to cream by hand, follow the instructions in the original recipe.
• To make hearts, I placed the dough on wax paper rolled the dough into a log with about a 2 inch diameter. Then I left it in the refrigerator (wrapped in the wax paper) for about an hour. After the hour, I took it out and pressed two of the sides into the counter, making the log a triangle with one rounded side. Then make a small indentation int he rounded side, running the length of the log. Cut the log into 1/4 inch thick cookies and tweak the shape to make them hearts. Alternatively, roll to about 1/4 inch thick and cut into desired shapes and place on the baking sheets about 1-inch apart

A finished cookie, one cut from the log, and the log.

• Bake the cookies for 15min 30sec (or that's what I did) or until they are sightly hard around the edges and smell like fresh-baked cookies.
• When they cool slightly, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Enjoy! These cookies are VERY RICH. Be warned.