I’ve hinted at this particular post all week, which really was last week, since it’s Sunday.
Valentine’s Day is coming up so I wanted to make some Valentine-ish treats AND have a fun link-up for you all to share your Valentine’s Day recipes and/or crafts. I have a whole page of ideas on Pinterest entitled, “Lovey-Dovey Day”. But for some reason, I didn’t use any of those recipes, but made up my own. What can I say, I was feeling creative.
All I did was look in my baking cupboard. I had all of the ingredients already, which to me say that I bake a lot. Not too much, I don’t think it’s possible to bake too much, however I do bake quite frequently.
I had some sugar cookie mix which is super handy for a base cookie, some craisins, raspberry flavoring, chocolate almond bark, cocoa powder, some pink, red and white m&ms and a heart-shaped cookie cutter and got to thinking. Does anyone else do this? Stare at all of your possible ingredients until something beautiful takes shape?
I finally landed on a creation I am going to call
Raspberry Craisin Chocolate-Dipped Cookies. {Print Recipe}
- Sugar cookie mix (+ ingredients called for such as 1 egg, butter, etc)
- Sub half of the butter in the recipe for applesauce for a fluffier, lower-fat cookie (if doing cut-out cookies, don’t use applesauce and add 1 TBS flour)
- 4 tsp raspberry flavoring
- few drops of red or pink food coloring
- 3/4 cup craisins (I like to chop mine up)
- 5-6 squares of almond bark
How To:
- Mix egg, butter and applesauce together. Add raspberry flavoring. Add sugar cookie mix.
- Add either pink or red food coloring until you achieve desired color. I would use pink next time, but in the pictures you see, I used a few drops of red.
- Add craisins.
- Refrigerate dough at least one hour so it will be easier to roll into cookie balls (or do cut-outs, which I was planning on doing, however the applesauce makes it a bit sticky).
- Roll into cookie dough balls and place on greased cookie sheets. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Allow cookies to cool and start melting your almond bark. I do two squares at a time, microwaving 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between until a meltey consistency is achieved.
- Dip cooled cookies into melted almond bark and place on waxed paper.
- You can also leave the cookies without the almond bark since they are so fruity and flavorful and alone.
I brought these to a friend’s house and they were gobbled up right away. It makes my heart happy when I hear the “Mmmm”s coming from those biting into my sweets. 🙂
I also decided to add some crushed candy canes leftover from Christmas. I sprinkled them on the chocolate almond bark before it hardened.
Peppermint+ raspberry+ chocolate = delightful.
These lovely cookies are absolutely perfect with a hot cup of joe. In fact, I wish I still had some left to enjoy with my coffee as I gaze out at this snow covered land.
God decided to grace us with a good snowfall for the first time all winter. We’ve gotten dustings, sure, but this is the first good snow.
Lots of people are complaining about it, but I think it is beautiful how all of the snow is stuck to each tiny branch and the whole world is white.
Driving is an adventure, my mom used to call it “sledding.” I now realize she was probably a bit nervous and was trying to make trudging up and down the big hills by our house into a fun game.
Compared to last week, the scenery looks quite different.
P.S. Get excited for a series I have coming up about loving your body. I have two amazing bloggers lined up to guest post for me…seriously get excited..I am!!!
Have a lovely Sunday!
Do you start your week on Sunday or Monday?
How’s the weather in your area?
Peppermint: yay or nay?
Now feel free to link-up some of your favorite Valentine’s Day treats and even projects (see below) if you’d like.
Linked up to: Scraps of Life
Crumbs and Chaos
