With the day of luuuuurve happening tomorrow, our pal Kirstin (full time teacher, part time master baker) has cooked up a batch of sweet as pie Valentines Day cookies, and shared her tips of the trade... So if you've forgotten to get a gift for your honey - then pre-heat your oven!
Take it away Kirstin...
Ingredients:
1 batch Sugar Cookies (see my first blog for the recipe)
Corn Flour or Icing Sugar for dusting
White Vanilla Fondant (500g – 1kg)
Food Colouring
Utensils:
Rolling pin
Paint brush
Small dish of water
Heart cookies cutters
Alphabet Cookie Stamps
Plastic baking mat or baking paper
Method:
1. Make a batch of sugar cookies use different sized heart cookie cutters and allow the cookies to cool completely. See my first blog for recipe.
2. Colouring fondant:
- Roll a small handful of fondant in your hands until it becomes soft.
- Dust the bench with a small amount of corn flour.
- Add a small amount of colour to the fondant and begin to knead on the bench.
- Continue this process until you have your desired colour.
3. Decorating Cookies:
- If you don’t have a plastic baking mat, simply roll out a piece of baking paper and dust it with a touch of corn flour.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out your fondant until it is approximately 0.5cm thick.
- Cut out the heart shapes using the same heart cookie cutters that you used to make your cookies.
- Take one of the heart shapes and turn it over on your hand. Using a small amount of water and the paintbrush, gently wet the underside of the fondant.
- Place the fondant heart on top of the cookie and in a circular motion, smooth the fondant down.
- Run your fingers around the edge of the fondant so that it is smooth and sticks to the cookie.
- Repeat the above steps until your cookies are covered.
- Using the alphabet cookie stamps, press messages into the cookies.
- Store your cookies in an airtight container. They will keep for up to 2 weeks.
TIPS:
- I personally prefer to use corn flour rather than icing sugar for dusting as I find that it is less clumpy and doesn’t leave a white sugary look to the cookies.
- If you’re just trying these cookies at home, you are able to use most fondants from any shop, most grocery stores now sell fondant. I like to use a product called “Fondtastic Premium Fondant” in the white vanilla flavour. It is also gluten and dairy free and you can buy it from cake decorating stores.
- When colouring the fondant, using gel colours (I use Americolor) is much better than using liquid food colouring. The liquid food colouring can make the fondant sticky. If this all that you have, just make sure that you use a lot of corn flour for dusting and kneading when colouring the fondant.
x Kirstin