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.

A Very Indian Valentines

Happy Valentines Day! This morning I got up early to work on my thesis, but was side-tracked by trying to find a job in some employment postings. So depressing-- I don't seem to be qualified for anything. At 9am, I made Cerinthus a surprise breakfast: his favorite is fresh-made Belgian waffles with a whipped cream, strawberries, and a touch of butter. I pulled the whole thing off rather well, I though, except that I totally failed at making hearts out of the whipped cream and it just looked like demented ellipses. Oh well.

Last night, to celebrate Valentines Eve (yes, we're clearly desperate romantics) we went to Indian Food at a place called the Bombay Cricked Club. We ordered cheese and garlic naan and chicken tikka masala. It was wonderful. The cheese naan was especially good-- it had spices and possibly green onions in it, I couldn't be sure. The garlic naan was HUGE. I wasn't expecting it to be so large. From now on, we will just order one piece of naan. The chicken tikka masala was great, although it was dark meat instead of breast meat, which was a little disappointing. However, this may be more traditional, I do not know. Cerinthus got the medium plus, while I got the hot. Both were a little out of our league spice-wise because they use habaneros instead of jalapenos. It was great anyway. Highly recommended, although a bit pricy (but I think worth it for good Indian food).

Tonight, crazy as we are, we are going to try the India House. The reviews are mixed, but we're going to try it anyway. It's cheaper than Bombay Cricket Club. I will write a review when done.

ADDED REVIEW:
India House was also fabulous, and Cerinthus and I had a lovely Valentines Day. I also got the Chickken Tikka Masala hot at the India House with garlic naan and paneer kulcha. The naan and kulcha were incredible and much more what I'm used to. Although I really liked the cheese naan at the Bombay cricket club, it was almost a meal unto itself. The garlic naan was much smaller at India House, but I like that it was topped with cilantro and I liked the naan dough better. I also liked the rice better at India House. My Chicken Tikka Masala was better on the whole at Bombay Cricket Club, partially because it was spiced with peppers rather than simply cayenne power and paprica, but the chicken at India House was breast meat, which was nice and was still flavorful and fabulous.

At India house, I got a glass of Oregon Pinot Noir. The glass was quite good, but the spiciness in the Pinot Noir actually intensified the spice in the food (which for India food as hot as I like it) is very hot. I tried a Syrrah with the leftovers and it was much better because it cooled my mouth down.

NOTE ON LEFTOVERS:

• There were more leftovers from Bombay Cricket Club, quite simply because the portions are much bigger.
• The rice from Bombay Cricket Club did not heat up very well, but the naan and the Chicken Tikka Masala did
• I heated the leftovers from India house up in the microwave. This was a bad plan-- the oil separated from the rest of the sauce. Probably next time I will heat it up in a pan.