I Heart Valentines Day Jell O Cookies Recipe 455 Food

I "HEART" VALENTINE'S DAY JELL-O COOKIES RECIPE - (4.5/5)

Steps:

• Cream butter, granulated sugar and Jell-O. If the color looks weak, add a few drops of color at a time until you reach the desired color. Add eggs and lemon baking emulsion to the mixture, cream well. Add flour, baking powder and salt; mix well. The dough will be fairly soft, but not sticky. To make these heart cut-outs, it is best if you refrigerate the dough before cutting, several hours or overnight if you don't like to wait. Pre-heat oven to 400°F. Depending on the size of your cookie cutter, you may need to experiment a little with the size of the dough balls because you want them to be a little bigger than the heart cookie cutter you will use. Roll the cookie dough ball in a bowl with about 1/2 cup of granulated sugar in it, completely covering the exterior of the dough ball. Place on the pan about 3″ apart. Using a flat-bottomed glass (or bowl) press the dough to about a 3/8″ thickness. Cut the heart out and then remove the excess dough from around the outer edge of the cutter and put back into the bowl of dough. If any excess dough remains at the bottom of the cutter or on the cookie sheet, wipe it clean with a paper towel before removing the cutter. Generously sprinkle the top with colored, chunky sugar. Mine all matched the different colors of dough, but you could contrast the colors if you like. Bake at 400°F. for 6 minutes, no longer! Remove from oven and let cool on a cookie rack. Note: It takes about an hour, start to finish, for one batch. You can make all four batches of dough, chill them overnight and then bake in the morning. Four colors/flavors = four batches. Store in a air-tight container. These stay moist and chewy for days!

HEART COOKIES DECORATED WITH ROYAL ICING

Steps:

• Cream 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Add white sugar and lemon zest and mix well. Mix in eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Mix in 1/2 of the flour until combined. Mix in remaining flour until dough comes together.
• Shape dough with your hands into a thick rectangle. Press flat and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Dust a work surface with flour and roll out dough into a thin circle. Cut out heart shapes and arrange cut-out cookies on the prepared baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove hearts from baking sheets carefully and transfer to wire racks. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
• Beat egg whites in a bowl until frothy. Beat in confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until stiff peaks form. Add lemon juice to thin out the mixture. Add more lemon juice for runnier icing. Divide icing into small bowls and color with red food coloring in different shades of red or pink, keeping a portion of the icing white. Cover with a damp kitchen towel at all times so it won't dry out.
• Decorate as you like using different techniques. For the flood technique, use runny royal icing in a piping bag with a small round #2 tip and pipe a line around the edge of the cookies. Fill in the center, evenly distributing the icing with a scriber tool.
• For hearts, add dots of a different color onto the wet icing and drag the scriber tool downwards through the dots. For lips, add an oval shape onto the wet icing and shape the oval into lips with the scriber tool.
• For feathers or patterns, pipe a line around the edge, then add stripes in different colors. Drag the scriber tool down through the stripes. For a marbled effect, pipe lines of different colors across a base layer, then drag the scriber tool up and down through the lines. Allow the icing to set completely.