These are beautiful home made cookies! Based on the checkerboard cookie concept, using two different colour cookie doughs, I decided to try this out with a love heart instead! Perfect for Valentine’s day!

There are millions of cookie recipes out there, and this uses a basic vanilla dough for the white cookie dough and then using cocoa for the black cookie dough. These would make a great gift from the heart (excuse the pun) or would be a different craft activity to do with the kids.

Holidays bring out the creativity in all of us; and these are of course not only for Valentine’s you can make them for any holiday, they’d be perfect for a wedding too! They are very easy to make, with a little patience and essential chilling time in the fridge to make the dough easier to work with. Cookie dough freezes perfectly, and this recipe makes at least 4 dozen cookies so if you want to save some cookies for another day they can be wrapped in cling film and frozen for up to 3 months. Allow to defrost fully before slicing and baking.

Ingredients

• 5 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 450g of butter, softened
• 2 cups of caster sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla essence
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup of cocoa powder

Instructions

In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar. Start beating slowly to avoid everything flying out the bowl! Beat in the eggs 1 at a time and then add the vanilla essence. In another bowl sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Add it to the butter sugar egg mixture and mix slowly, finishing it off with your hands if necessary.

 


Divide the dough in half, and place one half in a new bowl. Add in the cocoa powder and combine. Using your hands works best for this part.

 

Place the chocolate dough on some parchment on a board and roll it into a long sausage. Use the parchment to form the roll evenly.  Slice it in half to make it easier to work with. Now you need to flatten each length slightly, almost to a rounded oblong shape. Wrap both sections of chocolate log in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for an hour or two. Wrap up the white dough and chill that too.

When you are ready to continue, take out a section of the chocolate log and with a long sharp knife, cut the log lengthways on the diagonal to create each side of the heart. Turn the one section around and stick the two flat edges together to create your heart log. Using your fingers, smooth the edges to make them more rounded for the top of the heart and flatter on each side of the bottom of the heart. if necessary, with a sharp knife cut into the V on the top of the heart a bit more to make the edge sharper. Roll out a 1 cm slice of white dough, and cut a strip of dough to place in the V of the heart, smooth it out with your fingers. Add two more strips to either side of the bottom of the heart to make the heart log into a round shape again.

 

Wrap up the log in cling film and roll it back and forth to even the shape out. Place it in an empty toilet roll to keep the shape while you chill it in the fridge for an hour. After an hour, take out the white dough and roll it with a rolling pin to about 1/5 inch thick, and roll it around the black and white heart log. Trim the edges and wrap up the leftover white dough, and place it in the fridge. Wrap up your finished heart cookie roll in cling wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and unwrap the heart cookie dough roll. With a sharp knife, slice 1/4 inch thick cookies and place them on the baking sheet, leaving plenty of space around each one.

Bake for 10-12 minutes in the middle shelf of the oven, checking to see how they colour. Once done, take them out the oven and leave to cool on the baking sheet. Serve up with a nice hot chocolate and enjoy!

 

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