This is how Poppy and I spent our morning…..Enjoy!

for the cookies:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed and room temperature

1 cup organic granulated sugar

1 egg

1/2 orange, 1 1/2 tbsp fresh squeezed orange juice

1 tsp organic vanilla extract

2 cups self rising flour, (if you don’t have self rising flour on hand you can use  all purpose flour + 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt)

preheat oven to 350. In a stand mixer on medium-high, cream together the butter slowly adding the sugar. Add the egg then the orange juice and vanilla. Reduce speed to med-low and gradually add the flour. Mix until combined ( do not over mix ); separate the dough into two disks and wrap with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. On a well floured surface roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch in thickness. Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many hearts as you can! Place the hearts on a parchment lined baking sheet and toss in the freezer for about 5 minutes. Remove from th freezer and bake for 10 minutes or until the bottoms and edges are begining to brown slightly.

For the Icing:

2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1 tbsp meringue powder

1/4 cup water, room temp

1/2 tsp oil free vanilla extract, make sure there is no oil or it will ruin the icing!

pinch of cream of tartar

In the bowl of your stand mixer add the sugar, meringue powder and cream of tartar. Mix together using the paddle attachment. Add the extract to the water and slowly add it to the dry ingredients. Mix on medium speed for about 5-6 minutes ( it should at this point be thick like pudding ) then up the speed to high for another 3-4 minutes or until stiff and fluffy like meringue (make sure you do not over mix! Regardless of how long you have been mixing STOP as soon the peaks form or in other words it becomes stiff)

*note: if this all seems like far more time and effort than you wanted to spend making valentine cookies,  you can alway buy pre-made white cookie icing it’s super easy to use, you don’t need a piping bag….way less clean up annnd you don’t have to let them set overnight! hmmmm that sounds pretty good lol

To decorate:

pipe the outline of a heart inside each cookie then flood with icing; if you don’t know how to flood cookies with icing check out this tutorial on sweetsugarbelle. Once you have flooded your cookies, let them set overnight. Using a food marker decorate the iced parts of the hearts. These make the perfect little valentine. Share the love! x0