Valentine’s Chocolate-Dipped Heart Cookies

 This Valentine’s day – share some (gluten free) chocolate-dipped heart cookies. Buttery, crumbly heart-shaped cookie sandwiches, filled with a pretty (and tasty) raspberry frosting and dipped into dark chocolate – what’s not to love? Easy to make and yet so ridiculously adorable – these heart cookies are the perfect Valentine’s dessert.

Sometimes, writing is hard. Writer’s block and all that jazz. And I know that a common piece of advice is to write about what you know – your life lately, that thing that happened to you recently… but let’s be real here: most of you come here for the recipes, and only few – if any – of you come for the ramblings. And do you honestly want to know about this or that experiment that did or didn’t work, that interesting bit of analysis or that frustrating reaction that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere?

Life of a Chemistry PhD student – both exciting and boring at the same time.

But anyway, the cookies. The Valentine’s day, heart-shaped, chocolate-dipped, pink raspberry frosting-stuffed cookies. Also, let’s not forget the sprinkles. Oh boy, these heart cookies sure do mean business.

Ingredients
For gluten free heart-shaped cookies:

• 1 stick (113 g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup (50 g) caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups (180 g) plain gluten free flour blend (I've used a simple store-bought blend of rice, potato and maize flour with no added xanthan gum)
• 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• pinch of salt

For raspberry frosting:

• 1/2 cup (45 g) frozen raspberries (fresh work too)
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 cup (120 mL) double cream
• 1/4 cup (30 g) powdered sugar, sifted
• You will also need:
• 3 1/2 oz (100 g) dark chocolate, melted
• sprinkles of choice

Instructions
For gluten free heart-shaped cookies:

1. In a bowl, cream together butter, sugar and vanilla paste.
2. Add the egg and mix well.
3. Sift together the dry ingredients and add them to the wet mixture. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, mix all ingredients together until you get an even, smooth cookie dough that comes together in a ball.
4. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 355 ºF (180 ºC) and line a baking sheet with baking/greaseproof paper.
6. Roll out the chilled cookie dough until it's about 3 mm thick. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookie dough hearts and place them on the lined baking sheet. Leave about 1/2 - 1 inch in between the cookies.
7. Bake the cookies in the pre-heated oven at 355 ºF (180 ºC) for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Allow to cool.

For raspberry frosting:
First, make the raspberry reduction:

1. In a small saucepan, cook the raspberries with 1 tbsp water on medium-high heat until they have released their juice and part of the liquid has evaporated.
2. Pass the raspberry mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds and skin.
3. Return the raspberry juice to the saucepan and cook further until it has decreased in volume to about 1 tbsp.
4. Allow to cool.
5. Using either a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or a hand mixer with the double beater attachments, whisk the double cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.
6. Fold in the cooled raspberry reduction. Mix until you get a pretty pink frosting of an even colour.

Assembly:

1. Frost a heart cookie with an even layer of the raspberry frosting. 
2. Place another heart cookie on top of the frosting, making a cookie sandwich.
3. Place the formed cookie sandwiched into the fridge for about 1/2 hour for the frosting to firm up – this will make handling the cookie sandwiches during chocolate-dipping much easier.
4. Dip the chilled cookie sandwiches into the melted dark chocolate and decorate with sprinkles.
5. Enjoy!

Storage:

1. The Valentine's heart cookies keep well in a closed container in a cool dry place for 3 - 4 days, and in the fridge for about 1 week.

for full recipes please see : theloopywhisk.com

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