Valentines Shaker Cookies

Valentines Shaker Cookies are so much fun to eat and to look at. I gave these a go and was impressed with how they turned out.

As long as you have everything ready beforehand they are easy to prepare. The things you need to remember is, working with chilled dough is easier than soft dough, be patient and Isomalt is your friend as long as it doesn’t touch your skin.

To mix up the cookies and save time, with this batch you can have a combination of small, plain and shaker heart cookies.

Sugar Heart Cookies 

Ingredients:

• 113g  room temperature butter
• 100g granulated sugar
• 1 small beaten egg at room temperature
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla essence 
• 225g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and creamy (around 5 minutes). 
2. Add in the egg and vanilla essence and beat again. It should be well combined.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. 
4. Gradually add in the flour mixture. Beat on low speed until it is all combined. 
5. Finally use your hand to combine the dough all together. 
6. Wrap the dough in cling film then freeze for about 20 minutes. 
7. Take the dough out the freezer then shape your heart cookies.
8. You need two heart cookie cutters that are different sizes. 
9. Roll out the dough in between two baking sheets or paper. 
10. Use the bigger heart to cut out the first heart.
11. Peel off the excess dough, cover with cling film and place in the fridge for 10 minutes.
12. Now use the smaller cutter to cut the inner heart out. Once you have used the cutter, place the dough in the fridge so it hardens slightly before peeling off the inner heart. You may find that the inner hearts will peel off as you use the cookie cutter.
13. This will stop the outer heart losing shape and make it easier to peel off the inside heart. 
14. Continue until all the dough is used up. 
15. You will have a combination of big and small hearts.  
16. Stick these hearts in the fridge for 10 minutes before baking.
17. Bake for about 10-12 minutes in a preheated (180 degrees Celsius) oven. 
18. Once baked let them cool.
19. Pair the cookies for the hearts so you have a top and bottom. One half facing up and the other facing down.

For decorating

• Isomalt crystals (Squires Kitchen is what i use)
• Royal icing 
• Sprinkles

Royal Icing 

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp meringue powder
• 3 tbsp water (plus more of too thick) 
• 160g icing sugar
• gel colouring (pink and red) 

Method

1. Whisk the meringue powder and water in a bowl until foamy
2. Add the icing sugar, and whisk on medium speed until stiff and thick 
3. Split the colours depending on what you need. I went with plain, red and pink
4. Whilst decorating, add in water a teaspoon at a time to get to the consistency you want eg whether you want to flood your cookies or make designs. 
5. Melt the Isomalt in a pan with a handle. Place a teaspoon (depending on the size of the cookies) of melted Isomalt in the middle of each of the hearts for the shakers. 
6. The reason for turning half the hearts over is so you get the Isomalt to set on the top of one and bottom of the other, leaving a gap in between for the sprinkles.
7. On one half add in some sprinkles. Then put some royal icing around the cookie and stick the other half onto it. Let this harden then you have your shaker cookie.
8. Decorate them how you wish. I only decorate on half. Working with royal icing comes with practice. You soon get the hang of the consistency you need. I enjoy having a medium consistency mixture then piping the different colours before using a toothpick to create patterns.
9. Let these dry overnight.

Hope you get to make these cookies. Send me a message if you have any questions. If you love sweet treats, try out my french macarons too.

Neha

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