These cookies are the perfect treat to mend and warm your sweetie's heart on Valentine's Day. The cookie dough is made with only four ingredients (five ingredients if you add food coloring): butter, vanilla, powdered sugar, and flour. They are crisp and buttery. The filling is rich with chocolate cream, and the cookie is in the shape of a heart. What's not to love?
This recipe makes 12-15 sandwich cookies. I used a 3-inch cookie cutter. You can use a smaller cookie cutter if you want to yield a few more cookies. I would just cut the baking time down to 15 minutes and see how they look.
The chocolate ganache is so easy to make and absolutely delicious. It's important to let the ganache stand for 15-30 minutes so it thickens and doesn't run out of the middle of your cookie.
You can also use this ganache recipe to drizzle on ice cream or fruit, and it will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Once you are ready to use it, just reheat.
Here are a few simple tips to make sure your Chocolate Ganache Sandwich Cookies are a success:
- Make sure your butter is room temperature. This will allow it to cream easily and give you that light, shortbread texture you're after.
- Add the flour gradually and on low. No one wants a faceful of flour.
- Make sure you refrigerate the dough as directed in the recipe below. If it's too cold, it will be hard to roll out. Set it out on the counter for a while. If it's too soft, your hearts will rip and lose their shape when you pick them up. Pop the dough back in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.
- When rolling out your dough, follow the plastic wrap technique I listed in the recipe below. This keeps the dough from sticking and avoid the use of excess flour.
- If you like a crisp cookie, roll the dough to ⅛ inch thick. Having the same thickness for each cookie will guarantee even baking.
- You can freeze these cookies and they will keep nicely for weeks. If you decide to freeze, wait until you are ready to serve to dust them with powdered sugar.
Now more on mending that broken heart.
How to Mend a Broken Heart?
How do you mend a broken heart? The Bee-Gees didn't know. Al Green doesn't know.
I read that there are more broken hearts the day after Valentine's Day than any other day of the year.
On Valentine's Day, lovers anticipate a grand gesture, a diamond ring, a proposal, a white horse, a shout from a mountaintop. If your man shows up late with flowers from the gas station on Valentine's Day, it might be time to walk.
I don't know. I like the smell of gasoline.
Once, when I was a teenager, a boy bought me roses, perfume, and treated me to Valentine's Day dinner where the waiter lit Baked Alaska tableside. Afterward, our hearts still broke, but the restaurant was on the top of a mountain.
Instead of Valentine's Day, my husband proposed to me on my birthday. He took me to my bedroom. I sat on my bed and he read me a poem he wrote. Our families waited in the kitchen, drinking coffee and making small talk. We re-emerged engaged. My mother stuck candles in a chocolate sheet cake and we sang to birthdays and engagements.
I've been married for a long time. My husband and I still break each other's hearts sometimes and are unsure how to mend them. Maybe a Baked Alaska would do it, but I've started fires in the kitchen before, on accident, and besides, it's hard to keep hot ice cream solid. Lighting something on fire on purpose might be unwise.
Instead, I keep feeding my husband wholesome things, sweet things, things that don't require a blowtorch or a fire extinguisher. I keep feeding him and he keeps complimenting my cooking. I think it works. It mends his belly and mends my ego and nothing goes up in smoke.
CHOCOLATE GANACHE SHORTBREAD COOKIES FOR VALENTINE'S DAY
Equipment
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper sheets or silicone baking mat
- Heart-Shaped Cookie Cutters
- Fine-mesh sieve or duster
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (24 ounces) salted butter softened
- ⅛ tsp red gel food coloring optional
- 1 ½ cups (plus more for dusting) powdered sugar
- 4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
Chocolate Ganache
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- 1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chip morsels
Instructions
For the Cookie
- Using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter.
- Little by little, add the red food coloring until the desired shade is achieved.
- Add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth.
- Add the vanilla extract and beat until fully incooperated.
- Divide the dough into two pieces. Shape each half into a ball and then flatten them into discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 325° F.
- Line a baking sheet with a parchment paper sheet or a silicone mat.
- Place the chilled dough between two pieces of plastic wrap. To do this, I laid out two pieces of plastic wrap on my counter. I doubled the width of the plastic wrap by placing the pieces side-by-side and slightly overlapping them. I placed the dough in the center of the wrap. Then, I placed two pieces of plastic wrap on top of the dough.
- Roll the dough to ⅛-inch thick.
- Cut out the cookies using a 3 ⅕ inch heart-shaped cookie cutter and place them on a lined baking sheet.
- To avoid the cookies from spreading while baking, chill the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.
- Bake cookies for 17 minutes.
- Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack.
- Turn the cookies over, so the rough side is upright. Add a dollop of room-temperature chocolate ganache to the center of half of the cookies. (Ganache recipe below.)
- Using the back of a spoon, spread out the ganache just shy of the cookie's edge.
- Place another cookie on top creating a sandwich.
- Use a fine-mesh sieve or shaker to dust the powdered sugar on top of each cookie.
For the Ganache
- Scald the cream by either heating it on the stove-top or heating it in the microwave for 90 seconds. In both cases, watch carefully as the cream can bubble over quickly.
- Add 1 ½ cups of chocolate morsels to the cream. Make sure the chocolate is fully submerged in the hot cream and set aside for 10-15 minutes.
- Stir the ganache until smooth.
- Allow the ganache to cool for 15-30 minutes before filling the cookies.
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