Baking With Love

Ella Diers, Co-Editor-In-Chief

Valentine’s Day is coming up, and if you’re looking for a sweet gift for a loved one, these are the most perfect things ever. They’re easy, they taste good, they look good, and they absolutely scream “Thanks for giving me head sometimes!” 

For the base cookie recipe, you can use either a shortbread cookie or sugar cookie recipe, and honestly? You could for sure go for the bagged sugar cookie mix if hypothetically you live in a dorm room and you don’t have flour or sugar. BUT if you want to bake them from scratch, with your own beautiful hands, follow this recipe and impress your date with your awesome skills. Or you can make them for yourself and eat them all, which is what I did over winter break. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature 

⅓ cup sugar 

⅓ cup light brown sugar, tightly packed 

1 large egg yolk

¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ¼ cup all purpose flour 

2 teaspooons cornstarch

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup sugar for rolling 

⅓ cup jam or preserves (I like raspberry, because it tastes yummy and also its red so it’s pretty on brand)

1. Place butter in the bowl and beat until creamy, you can use a hand mixer or probably just stir really hard, unless you have access to a KitchenAid at Beloit, in which case I am jealous
2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add sugars, and beat, gradually increasing mixer speed to medium-high until ingredients are well-combined (about 30-60 seconds).
3. Add egg yolk and vanilla extract and beat well.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt.  
5. With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients until completely combined.  This dough will seem very dry and crumbly, so be sure to pause occasionally to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.  If it starts to strain your mixer you can use your hands to finish working the dough together.
6. Scoop cookie dough into 1 Tablespoon-sized balls and roll into a ball, making sure there aren’t cracks in the dough
7. Roll in granulated sugar and place on a wax-paper covered plate or small cookie sheet.  Use your thumb and press down twice, angling to make a sweet little heart shape. It might take some practice, I found that using the side of my thumb worked well
8. Transfer cookie dough to the freezer and chill for 30 minutes.
9. Preheat your oven to 375F and place your jam in a small microwave-safe bowl.  Heat briefly (about 5-10 seconds) or until the jam is not hot but is no longer firm and is easy to stir.
10. Spoon jam into each thumbprint, filling each indent to the brim.  
11. Once the oven is preheated, place cookies at least two inches apart on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake for 11 minutes or until edges are just beginning to turn golden brown.

This recipe is from sugarspunrun.com, I thought Sam, the bakestress, really slayed with this one.