Do you celebrate Valentine’s day? I always have, but never in a big way. Last year when we were in lockdown I just cooked us a nice supper and made som heart shaped cookies with a yummy cream cheese frosting. Pink of course!
The cookies were quite fiddly to make, but really delicious, and the frosting recipe is now a go-to, courtesy of the brilliant Ina Garten.
Valentine’s Day cookies with cream cheese frosting
Recipes adapted from Rachel Parcell (via Mary Orton) and Ina Garten. It’s a large batch for the cookie dough and it can easily be halved.
2 cups (475 ml) butter, softened (I used salted)
6 eggs
2 cups (475 ml) caster sugar, heaped
2,5 tsp vanilla
6 tsp baking powder
6-7 cups (1420-1655 ml) flour
Frosting:
430 g Philadelphia
340 g salted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
680 g icing sugar
food colouring, optional
sprinkles, optional
Mix wet ingredients with sugar using an electric whisk, then slowly add baking powder and flour. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes. Roll out the dough until quite thick, approx 3 mm, use a cookie cutter to shape hearts and carefully place them on a parchment paper lined baking tray. Bake for 5-7 minutes at 190C, until still pale and soft. Leave to cool on a wire rack before icing.
Mix together the ingredients for the icing using an electric whisk. Add a few drops of food colouring (I prefer the gel colours) to the frosting, mix well and spread onto the cooled cookies with a small spatula. Add sprinkles if using.
I kept the icing in a bowl covered with cling film for a few days, icing the cookies as we ate them so they wouldn’t soften.
Scandelights 