Valentine’s Day Cookies

I don’t know when our family started the sweet tradition of making these cookies every Valentine’s Day, but I assume it was well before I was born. My Nana made them. My mother made them, too–actually, she still does–and now we all make them. I know that today and tomorrow my mom, aunts, sister, and cousins will be baking and decorating Valentine’s Day Cookies whether we’re here in Alabama, or in Florida, or Georgia, or wherever. I love that we’re all making the same thing we remember from childhood. (Although I notice that my Aunt Kali is an overachiever: her pretty cookies are already up on Facebook.)

These are simple but delicious butter cookies with a simple icing that hardens nicely. The dough is easy to handle and it rolls out well. Both the dough and icing are easy for children to work with. If you don’t have a heart-shaped cookie cutter, just cut out round cookies (or roll dough into a log to use slice-and-bake style) and paint hearts on them with the icing. I’m hopeless with a pastry bag for decorating, but I manage to decorate these with a butter knife and a spoon anyway. Some of my relatives are more coordinated.

My mother makes them all pink and pretty, but I do a range of colors from white to red because when my girls were little they couldn’t agree. The range of icing colors is easy to accomplish: just ice a few cookies with the plain white icing before adding any red food coloring, then add a few drops of red, ice a few more, add a little more food coloring, and ice a few more. I also like some cookies dipped in chocolate if I have any. Sprinkles or colored sugar are always welcome.

The original recipe in calls for ½ teaspoon vanilla and ½ teaspoon almond extract. I don’t think I’ve ever owned any almond extract, and I always substitute more vanilla extract instead. You should do whatever makes you and yours happy in the extract department.

As an added bonus, these butter cookies travel very well. Over the years we have delivered them to school for Valentine’s Day parties, plated them up and taken them to neighbors and friends, and even boxed them up and mailed them off to a child or grandchild in college. (That last one is my favorite. It went a long way toward ensuring my popularity with my dorm-mates.)

LOVE AND COOKIES!