I found this great small Valentine’s Day Cookie Stamp at Fancy Flours the other day. I really like cookie stamps, but a lot of them are really big (like 4 inches) and this one is nice and small. Perfect for these sugar cookies. They aren’t really anything special, but the raspberry glaze really does make them pretty. Easy but time consuming because you have to let things cool and harden a couple of time.
Ingredients
for the cookies
1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
for the glaze
6 tablespoons seedless raspberry jam
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2-4 tablespoons lemon juice (enough to make it liquidy to decorate with a squeeze bottle with a fine tip)
You will also need: a circular cookie cutter, a heart cookie stamp (like this one) and a small squeeze bottle with a #2 tip.
Directions
In mixing bowl, cream together unsalted butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Beat in flour, baking powder, orange juice and vanilla until smooth and well combined. Chill in refrigerator 2-3 hours or until firm enough to be rolled.
Roll out dough on a well-floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness (be careful to get the surface even, otherwise you will have oddly-browned cookies. Also, do not roll the dough to thin, otherwise you will have hard cookies when they come out of the oven). cut our circles and lay on a piece of wax paper coated sheet pan. Stamp with the cookie stamp (you might have to carefully pull them off the stamp; stay the stamp with baking spray if it won’t release at all). Refrigerate on the sheet pan for another 2-3 hours.
Preheat oven to 400F. Transfer cookies to parchment or silpat lined baking sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.
To make your glaze, whisk together the raspberry jam and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Add lemon juice until you have a consistency that you can pipe through the small tip. How much you will need will depend on how liquidy the jam was. Pipe glaze into the hearts of each cookie, and let harden completely (mine took about another two hours to harden. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.
