Spicy Valentine’s Heart Cookies

Make these Valentine’s Day cookies for your child’s class or to bring to the office.

-Greg Johnson, oatmealcookieguy.com

For a Valentine’s-themed cookie, I knew I wanted to use chocolate and spicy hearts candies. 

Oddly enough, finding cinnamon hearts proved more difficult than I bargained for, but I did find Red Hots candies. They’re essentially the same thing but round. I had been planning on chopping them up all along, so what difference would the shape really make? Not much.

I’m really not a sugar cookie fan, but I have to admit that my oatmeal version is pretty darn good. I cut my cookies in the shape of hearts. For the full Valentine’s effect, I dipped these cookie hearts in chocolate and then topped them with the chopped Red Hots candies.

Yummy: heart shapes, chocolate, and spicy cinnamon. It’s the perfect Valentine’s Day treat!

Ingredients:

1 stick butter

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/4 cups finely ground oatmeal

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for Topping:

6 ounces milk chocolate, melted

1 1/2 cups roughly chopped Red Hots candies

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar.

2. In a small bowl, combine the egg and vanilla. Whisk together until smooth. Add the combined wet ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix together until well incorporated.

3. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients (oatmeal, flour, baking soda and salt). Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined wet mixture. Mix until evenly combined.

4. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 20-30 mintutes. Roll the cookie dough into a sheet about 1/8″ thick. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the individual cookies. Place the cookie cutouts about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.

5. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.

6. While the cookies are baking, roughly chop the Red Hots candies in a food processor and place the pieces in a shallow bowl or on a plate.

7. Melt 6 ounces of milk chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler. Dip the tops of the cooled cookies into the chocolate and then into the roughly chopped Red Hots.

8. Return the cookies to the baking sheets and place in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes so that the chocolate cools and solidifies.

Try using this heart-shaped cookie cutter from amazon.com ($6.58).

For more Valentine’s Day recipes, check out our Recipe File.