Friday, February 12, 2010

Valentine Lofthouse Cookies

Remember those Lofthouse Sugar Cookies I blogged about before? No? Well, here they are again in heart form. I am really really not a lover of all things pink with hearts. I tried to make the icing red, but it didn't happen. I guess I needed to add the whole jar of dye to get that color. What I ended up with was hot pink! ugh!! This was my first time working with dye, so oh well...

Anyway, as everyone knows, the holiday of love is coming up. I might not have a Valentine this year, and I'm totally okay with that. Relationships bring on too much drama for my needs haha. I enjoy being single, especially while being a graduate student.
So, in honor of this holiday and for the people out there who actually like hearts and the color pink, you should try out this recipe. This is a soft, cakey, delicious cookie. These cookies are so good that I have to control myself from not eating the whole batch.
I made these cookies for my students (and made a few extra for me hehe). I'm trying my best to keep my hand out of their cookie jar. Because if I don't control myself, only one student will end up with a cookie tomorrow LOL! They take some time to make, so make the dough the day before Valentine's. I posted a few process photos below so that you can see how thick the dough is. You'll need a bit of flour to handle the sticky dough, but it's worth all the trouble.
Enjoy!

Lofthouse Cookies
adapted from Recipezaar
For 4-inch cookies, you will end up with two dozen cookies. So, if you make 2 1/2 - 3-inch cookies, you should end up with about 3-4 dozen cookies.

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar (in my halved version, I added 2 Tbsp (1/4 cup for full version) EXTRA of sugar to make the cake part a tad sweeter)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups sour cream
5-6 cups AP flour, until desired consistency for rolling (in my halved version, I used 2 1/2 cups in the dough and then added about half a cup more of flour while rolling out the dough. I needed more than a cup for the full version.)

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients.

Cover and refrigerate overnight (or 6-8 hours).


Preheat oven to 425ºF.
Roll out dough to a 1/4 to 3/8 inch thickness using a generous amount of flour (I used a combination of flour and powdered sugar for a non-stick surface and flavor). Cut out shapes, and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 minutes.

Cool on wire rack.
Frost (recipe below), and decorate as desired.

Lofthouse Cookie Frosting
adapted from Recipezaar
Yields enough for 2 dozen cookies, so double the recipe, if you need more.

3 1/2 - 4 cups confectioners' sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
1/2 cup shortening
5-8 Tbsp (or more) evaporated milk (or regular milk), until you reach the desired consistency
1 tsp vanilla extract
red food coloring (optional)

In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners' sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the evaporated milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring, if desired.

29 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos! These look fabulous. And what lucky students you have! :)

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  2. These cookies are the perfect Valentines Day treat. Excellent photos too.

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  3. Ah, I have to say that these are the cutest, prettiest, filled with love cookies I have ever seen! I am giving my students candy today, but I wish I could give them something homemade; maybe next year?

    Your pictures are so "sweet," just like you!
    Happy Valentine's Day to my favorite Valentine :o)

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  4. I have never succeeded in making red icing! I always end up with hot pink too. That's totally passable on Valentine's day... my hot pink Christmas cookies were a different story. ;) Hot pink or no, your cookies look great!

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  5. These cookies are so pretty! :)

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  6. what kind of food colouring did you use liquid, powder or gel? I am using a gel food cour these days that seems to be giving me a nicer colour than the liquid colour I used before. Hey - you don't need someone special in your life to celebrate valentines Day - you are special. Make it a special Day for you. When I was single I used to go all out and spoil myself.

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  7. I'm not much into hearts and pink either. And now that I think about it chocolate flowers! It may have something to do with growing up in a house full of boys. With that said I certainly wouldn't pass up any pink or heart shaped cookie from you!
    ~ingrid

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  8. They look great! My kids love lofthouse cookies thanks for the recipe :)
    If you need a recommendation for red food coloring try AmeriColor super red. It works great and you don't need a lot.

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  9. I'm going to have to agree with the others and say if you want a more intense color without using all the extra dye, that gel colors work wonderfully. BUT don't use the Wilton gel colors because they produce more of a pastel coloring. Americolor is the way to go and they sell mini bottles for about $1.75.

    BTW, I happen to like pink or red and hearts so I think these are pretty. What can I say, I'm a little hokey :-)

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  10. The recipient of these is one lucky person.

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  11. The cookies look great, perfect for Valentines Day. You're so nice for making treats for your students. I never did that. hah. Oh, btw, I don't live in graduate housing but it's almost like that since my neighborhood is completely filled with students!

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  12. How did your big paper go by the way? I hope you aced it!

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  13. How beautiful! I so love your reference to the "holiday of love". It has so much nicer a connotation than Valentine's Day :-). Have a great weekend. Blessings...Mary

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  14. Your heart cookies look so pretty and cute :)

    Happy Valentine's Day!

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  15. They are GORGEOUS! I love anything pretty and these are adorably pretty. I actually like this shade of "red". :)

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  16. Happy Valentine's to you as well Memoria! Your cookies are perfect and very pretty looking.

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  17. I love the color of the frosting on these! They are gorgeous (and I am not even a fan of pink :)).

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  18. These look beautiful!!! Happy day after vday :D

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  19. for someone who doesnt like pink this is very evry very pretty . at least u took the trouble to make soemthing valentinine..i didnt...^^

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  20. Lofthouse cookies are my favorite in the entire world-they're the softest, melt in your mouth sugar cookies out there! My roommates always laugh at me whenever I can find them in the grocery store. I'm so excited to try this recipe, thanks for posting :)

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  21. I missed two of your posts being gone! These both look great, but boy that pie down there omgosh!!!

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  22. These cookies are the prettiest ever!

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  23. Tra tutti i biscotti di S.Valentino che ho visto, questi sonoq uelli che mi paicciono di più!

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  24. Great pictures! I live the cookies. Tell me how the frozen yogurt turns out!

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  25. Looking at your cookies makes me happy!

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  26. Também fiz umas cookies com a minha filhota alusivas a este tema. Ficaram um miminho! Ela adorou porque fez parte de um projecto do jardim de infância. Fizemos um coração gigante e outro mais pequenos para oferecer aos colegas... A minha filha adorou!
    http://cabecasdealhochocho.blogspot.com/2010/02/bolachas-de-sao-valentim.html#comments

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  27. Actually I am writing my installment dissertation project and getting important points from different blogs and forums and This is my pleasure to being here on this blog..

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  28. Thanks for sharing this cool stuff... here with us mate my pleasure to being here on your blog...!
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