How to make your own Valentine Heart cookies, just like the ones you buy in a tube from Pillsbury at the grocery store! Although I'm sure there is a tutorial out there somewhere on how to make these, I did figure out this method myself. I saw a program where they made hard candies with designs in the middle and they used this similar method. I made these cookies quite large and would probably scale it down the next time to get more cookies. This made about 18-3" diameter cookies. You can use any cookie dough recipe that is labelled "refrigerator or icebox" or that in the instructions you must roll, refrigerate and slice prior to baking. The following dough makes a nice, tender, not overwhelmingly sweet cookie. The dough is sticky and need to be chilled to work with. 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup shortening 1- 3 oz package cream cheese softened 2/3 cup sugar 1/2 tsp salt 1 egg 1/2 tsp almond extract (or vanilla extract or any other extract you want to try) 2 cups all purpose flour Combine butter, shortening and cream cheese in a large bowl, beat together until smooth. Add sugar and salt. Beat until combined. Beat in egg and almond extract until combined and gradually add the flour beating until combined. Break off about one third of the dough and add enough red food colour to make a nice dark shade of pink. Wrap the dough in parchment or waxed paper and freeze for 30-45 minutes or chill in fridge for 2 hours (to make the dough easier to work with) Wrap and chill the white portion the same way (flatten the dough to make it chill faster). Roll the red dough into an 8" log. Form the heart shape by pinching a " V " shape on one side and the two "heart bumps" on the other side. Smooth as much as possible. You will end up with something that looks like you used a heart shaped cookie cutter to punch through a very large thick piece of cookie dough. Actually as I type this, I'm thinking that another method might be to cut out a bunch of hearts and stick them together back to back with some milk or water to make the same long heart shape!! Freeze heart shaped log for 30-45 minutes until very firm. Take 2/3 of the remaining white dough and form three logs, one small (about hot dog size) and two larger ones (about double the size of the smaller one). Make sure they are the same length as the heart log. Take last 1/3 of the white dough and flatten it into a rough rectangle, the same length as the heart log. Freeze white dough logs and flat piece for about 30 minutes. Take heart log and re-mold if necessary, smoothing surface with fingers to remove bumps. Take the smallest white log and pinch one side enough so that it will fit into the "trench" at the top of the heart log. Brush some milk onto the heart log and press the small log (pinched side into heart trench) onto the heart log. Press the other two larger white dough logs on the remaining two sides of the heart "V" shape. Spread the white dough as much as you can to cover all of the red dough. Place the covered heart log onto the flattened piece of white dough and roll the flat piece around the heart piece (if the flat piece cracks and breaks let it warm up a bit, it will soften quickly). Roll the completed log on the countertop pressing gently all over to smooth the dough and to make sure the layers of dough have adhered to one another. Try to get a round log, being gentle as to not deform the heart shape inside. Wrap and freeze the completed dough log for at least an hour, or 2-3 hours in the refrigerator until very firm. Slice the dough log into 1/4 inch slices with a sharp knife, placing the cookies about 2 inches apart on a greased (or parchment or silicone mat covered) cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes or until bottom and edges are light brown. For a softer cookie, bake until set and only bottom light brown. Once out of the oven, let cool for 5 minutes and transfer to wire racks to cool completely. This dough recipe is the same as the base to my cherry cheese cake cookie recipe (before adding the cherries and juice) Here is that recipe if interested: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gCGYdNuKXw&feature=plcp&context=C3b66050UDOEgsToPDskIfC4bWrHZE7pkben-5IRBC I may do St. Patrick's day cupcakes using this same method! Make me want to try all sorts of shapes :)

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