Author of Ed Engoron’s Choclatique, Running Press, 2011
Prep Time: 60 minutes
Bake Time: 9 to 10 minutes
Cooling Time: 1 hour
Ready In: 3 hours
Servings: 60 cookies
Robert Heinlein once said, “Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” And once again Cupid is calling and what better way to your Valentine’s Heart than with a cookie—a heart-shaped cookie. This Valentine’s Day make a wonderfully peppermint-flavored chocolate filled cookie hearts Each cookie is drizzled with 2 different icings, one milk chocolate, the other peppermint pink.
Ingredients for the cookies:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons peppermint extract
Ingredients for the chocolate filling:
1 3/4 cups Choclatique Milk Chocolate Chips
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening (Crisco)
Ingredients for the peppermint drizzle:
1 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 drop peppermint extract, or to taste
1 drop red food coloring, or as needed
4 1/4 teaspoons whole milk, or as needed
Ingredients for the chocolate drizzle:
1/4 cup Choclatique Heirloom Milk Chocolate Pastilles
2 teaspoons vegetable shortening
Directions for the cookies:
- Whisk the flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl until thoroughly combined.
- With an electric mixer or stand mixer, cream the butter, 3/4 cup shortening, sugar and brown sugar in a large bowl until fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, 1/4 cup milk and 1-1/2 teaspoons of peppermint extract.
- Gradually beat in the flour mixture, about 1 cup at a time, until the mixture forms soft dough. Divide the dough into 4 pieces, cover and chill for 1 hour in refrigerator.
- Preheat oven to 375º F.
- To make filling, melt 1-3/4 cups of milk chocolate pastilles with 2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening in the top of a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water. Stir the mixture until very smooth, and remove the filling from the heat to cool and slightly thicken.
- Remove one piece of cookie dough from refrigerator at a time, and working on a floured surface, roll the cookie dough out 1/8-inch thick cutting 120 hearts (total) with a 2 1/2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter. Place half the hearts onto ungreased baking sheets.
- Carefully spread the hearts with about a teaspoon of the chocolate filling, avoiding the edges, and top each with another heart cookie. Gently pinch the edges of both cookies together to enclose the filling.
- Bake for 9 to 10 minutes until firm.
- Let the cookies cool for 1 minute on the baking sheets before removing to finish cooling on racks.
Directions for the peppermint drizzle:
- Mix together the confectioners’ sugar, 1 drop of peppermint extract (to taste), red food coloring to your desired shade of pink or red, and milk as needed in a bowl to make a smooth, thin icing.
Directions for the chocolate drizzle:
- Melt 1/4 cup of milk chocolate pastilles with 2 teaspoons of vegetable shortening over hot (not boiling) water in a double boiler; stir and heat until the mixture is thin enough to drip in strings from a spoon.
Directions for decorating:
- Drizzle each cooled cookie with a little peppermint drizzle on one side, and a little chocolate drizzle on the other. Let the cookies stand so the drizzle sets, about 30 minutes.
ChefSecret: Do not thicken the chocolate filling too much or it will become hard to spread and will tear the fragile cookie dough. If you have enough chocolate filling left over you can use it to drizzle instead of making the chocolate drizzle. You will have to rework the trim from the dough in order to get the full 60 count on the cookies.
If you’re looking for those special words to for that special person here are my best Valentine’s Day Borrow-A-Quotes:
I am like a falling star who has finally found her place next to another in a lovely constellation, where we will sparkle in the heavens forever.
Amy Tan
The love we give away is the only love we keep.
Elbert Hubbard
Infantile love follows the principle: “I love because I am loved.”
Mature love follows the principle: “I am loved because I love.”
Immature love says: “I love you because I need you.”
Mature love says: “I need you because I love you.”Erich Fromm
Love doesn’t make the world go ’round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile.
Franklin P. Jones
There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved.
George Sand
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Henry David Thoreau
A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.
Ingrid Bergman
Love does not die easily. It is a living thing. It thrives in the face of all of life’s hazards, save one — neglect.
James D. Bryden
Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.
John Lennon
Where there is love there is life.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.
Mother Teresa
Do you love me because I’m beautiful, or am I am beautiful because you love me?
Oscar Hammerstein, II
Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it. We can have but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
Earth’s the right place for love. I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
Birches
Robert Frost
Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
Robert Heinlein
If I know what love is, it is because of you.
Herman Hesse
I love you; Not only for what you are But for what I am when I am in love with you.
Robert Croft
Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all.
St. Augustine
When certain foods were rationed during World War II, bakers used boiled beets to enhance the color of their cakes and to retain moisture. I use minced red beets in many of my chocolate cake recipes.
So, I thought if you can “red velvet” cakes and 
Are you stumped for just the right words to put on you sweeties card? Well here’s the perfect glossary where you can Borrow-a-Quote for the day. We promise we won’t tell.
