Favorite Valentine Cookies

Cute Connie whipped some of her favorite Valentine Cookies up yesterday to share with her Valentine, and so kindly sent us a photo of the yummy cookies (thanks for the picture Connie but how rude to tempt us all with no taste!). We decided to share these with all of you on our Facebook page. Many of you begged for the recipe, so Connie kindly sent it over and we are happy to share it with you today.

Have a great Valentine’s Day and make sure you all have lots of sweets, after all, isn’t that why we celebrate today?

Heart Shaped Samoa Cookies

{Thanks again to Connie Whitesides}

Ingredients

Cookie:

• 1 cup butter, soft • 1/2 cup sugar

• 2 cups all purpose flour • 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 1/2 tsp salt • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

• approx. 2 tbsp milk

Topping:

• 3 cups shredded coconut, either sweetened or unsweetened.

• 12-oz Peters Caramel

• 1/4 tsp salt

• 3 tbsp milk

• 8 oz. dark Callebaut Snaps

Cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder, and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk, adding in the milk as needed to make the dough come together without being sticky (it’s possible you might not need to add milk at all). The dough should come together into a soft, not-too-sticky ball. Add in a bit of extra flour if your dough is very sticky.

2. Roll the dough out (working in two or three batches) between pieces of wax paper to about 1/4-inch thickness (or slightly less) and use a 1 1/2-inch cookie cutter to make rounds, or hearts if it’s Valentines.

3. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes, until bottoms are lightly browned and cookies are set. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Topping:

1. Preheat oven to 300 F. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

2. Place caramel in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula.Using the spatula or a small offset spatula, spread topping on cooled cookies, using about 2-3 tsp per cookie. Reheat caramel for a few seconds in the microwave if it gets too firm to work with.

3. While topping sets up, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching.Dip the base of each cookie into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment paper.Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle finished cookies with chocolate.

4. Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes about 3 1/2-4 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!