Valentine's Day Cookies

So is it true you also can't wait for Valentine's Day? I am here in a baking and decorating mood! I think cookies can be a perfect sweet gift for the one you love! I think they look so wonderful, so much in love and of course the taste is also delicious!

Just be creative Valentine's Day is only once a year <3

Ingredients:
For the cookies: 
makes 10-15 large or 25-30 medium

• 250g butter
• 250g sugar
• 1 egg (if you are not planning to do royal icing use 2 eggs)
• 1 yolk (keep the egg white for your royal icing)
• 1 package of vanilla sugar (16g)
• 400g flour

For the Royal Icing:

• 1 egg white
• 250g powder sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract - optional
• food coloring - I used red and pink

Preparation:

For the cookies: In a bowl of an electric mixer beet the butter and sugars together until creamy and fluffy. Ad the egg and the yolk and mix until all combines. Now add the flour in few stages and mix until all ingredients come together. Take your dough out of the bowl and cover with clingfilm and refrigerate at least for 30min.

Take your dough out of the fridge, sprinkle some flour on the work surface and roll out the cookie dough to about 5mm thick. 

Using cookie cutters cut your cookie shapes and place them on baking trays lines with baking paper. Return to the refrigerator to rest again for at least 30 min. 

Preheat the oven at 180C for about 10min. 

Bake the cookies for about 15min, depending on their size or until they get a nice golden brown color. 

Leave them to cool down completely before decorating them with royal icing or storing them. 

For the royal icing: Sift the powder sugar into a mixing bowl of an electric mixer, add the egg white and mix together for about 10min. Until the icing has reached a stiff-peak consistency (which is what you would need for sticking on decorations and gluing cakes together). But we now need a thinner consistency of icing in order to be able to create this beautiful roses. You will have to add some water to the icing but do this step by step. To get the best consistency I have used the 10 seconds rule - you can find may tutorials on royal icing. Once you are happy with your icing consistency color your icing using eatable food colorings. Pour the icing into the piping bags and start from outlining around the edge of each cookie. Then with the same icing flood inside the outlines on the cookies. Immediately before the icing starts to dry put some dots on the icing and with a toothpick make some swirls or zig-zags to get different designs. Here you can find a nice tutorial on how to do the Royal Icing Hearts Hope you enjoyed!!!