Valentines Day Cookies, Part I

As some of you know, I teach 4 and 5-year-old preschoolers.  In preschool, Valentines Day is a pretty big holiday--we've been celebrating it a week already with heart stencils, pink sparkly play dough, and doily crafts. As the big day is tomorrow, I decided to do a two day cookie baking project.  


I made the cookie dough last night, and brought it into the classroom this morning.  After the dough warmed up enough, the kids were able to roll it out and use cookie cutters (just like play dough).  We made some plain hearts for tomorrow (we're going to decorate them with royal icing and sprinkles), but then did some fancy ones for snack today.  We made some mini pink hearts, and then multicolored hearts-inside-hearts.

The recipe is from one of my favorite bakers, Lauren Chattman---the dough, quite literally, takes 5 minutes to make!

Heart-in-Heart Cookies 

• 2 sticks butter
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour

Cream the butter and the sugar, then add the egg yolk and the vanilla.  Mix in the flour until you form a ball of dough (I ended up using my hands at the end). Divide the dough into three balls (add food coloring to one or two if you choose), and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.  Bake for around 8 minutes in a 375º oven.

To make the heart-in-heart cookies, cut a small heart out of a larger heart in two different colors of dough. Switch the middles, and then press gently together so they stick.