Friday, February 6, 2009

Lollipop Cookie Valentines

Lollipop Cookie Valentines

Ingredients:
12 flat wooden popsicle sticks
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 (1 ounce) squares white or dark chocolate, or 6 ounces of each
1 egg white
1 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
food coloring (optional)
assorted candies and cake decors



Directions:
1 Soak popsicle sticks for one hour in a bowl of cold water.
2 In small heavy saucepan over very low heat, stir chocolate chips until
melted and smooth. Remove from heat; let cool.
3 In large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed, beat butter, brown
sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Beat egg in well; beat in cooled chocolate.
With mixer at low speed, beat in flour, cocoa powder and salt until smooth.
Divide dough in half.
4 Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and grease 2 large cookie
sheets.
5 Roll each half out to 1/8 inch thickness between 2 sheets of wax paper;
freeze, in wax paper, 5 minutes. Peal top sheets of wax paper off dough;
cut dough out using 3-inch heart-shaped cutter. Reroll scraps; freeze again
5 minutes; cut out. Place half of the hearts 1 inch apart on prepared
cookie sheet.
6 Drain sticks, pat dry. Place one stick on each heart to make 2 1/2 inch
handle, pressing lightly into dough. Place remaining hearts on top; press
edges gently to seal. Bake about 12 minutes until firm to touch. Cool on
wire racks.
7 In 2-quart heavy saucepan over very low heat, or in top of double
boiler set over barely simmering water, stir white or milk chocolate until
melted and smooth; if using both chocolates, melt in separate 1-quart pans.
Remove from heat.
8 Holding each lollipop by handle, dip into chocolate to coat on both
sides; let excess chocolate drip back into pan. Place each lollipop as it
is coated on wax-paper-lined cookie sheet; refrigerate 20 minutes until
chocolate is set.
9 To Make Icing: In large bowl with electric mixer at high speed, beat
egg white and confectiners' sugar until very smooth. If desired, remove
small portion of icing to separate bowl; tint with drops of food coloring.
Spoon icing into decorating bag fitted with small writing tip; pipe over
lollipops in delired patters. Decorate with assorted candies and decors;
attaching with dots of icing.
Makes 1 dozen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Conversation-Heart Cookie Pops

COOKIES
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 18 oz package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
9 paper lollipop sticks (6")

ICING
3 egg whites (or 3 tbsp meringue powder combined with 6 tbsp warm water)
1 16 oz package confectioner's sugar
Red, yellow, orange and purple food coloring

COOKIES: Beat flour into dough until combined. Divide dough into two pieces; roll into balls. Between sheets of wax paper roll out dough to 1/2" thickness. Freeze 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Using 3" heart-shaped cookie cutter cut out hearts, rerolling dough scraps as necessary to make 9 hearts. Place cookies 2" apart on ungreased baking sheets. Starting at pointed end insert lollipop stick 3/4" into each dough heart. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on rack 5 minutes. Remove from pans; cool on racks.

ICING: At high speed beat egg whites (or meringue powder and water) until soft peaks form. Reduce speed to low; gradually beat in sugar until combined. Increase speed to medium; beat 1 minute. Divide icing equally among 5 bowls; tint to desired color with food colorings. Transfer 1/4 cup purple and pink icing to separate food storage bags; reserve. Add 1/2-1 tsp water to each of remaining icing until pourable. Place rack with cookies over wax paper. Pour icings over cookies; let dry, 5-10 minutes. Snip one corner from each bag of reserved icings to make small hole; use to write on hearts. Makes 9 cookie pops.

No comments: