Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

Hello all! In honor of this week's festivities, I decided to make the residents at PATH Valentine's Day sugar cookies! I was pretty worried about making them in the start because I have made sugar cookies from scratch before but they turned out burnt, so I wanted to make sure that these turned out perfect! The ingredients were really simple, nothing too complicated, but it took some more time than I expected. I only had to buy about 2 extra ingredients I didn't have with me at home (I usually buy around 5 or 6), but it took some more time to set everything up, take pictures, let it freeze, make sure the dough was perfect temperature to work with, roll and shape into balls, then cook to perfection, dye the frosting, and shape them into hearts. The directions clearly stated that I should pay very close attention towards the end when the cookies were almost done just to make sure they didn't burn which was extremely helpful. After waiting at the oven for about the last 4 minutes, checking every minute or so if they were done or not, I finally brought the cookies, smelled the sweet aroma of vanilla from freshly baked cookies, and became very happy to see that the cookies were golden, soft, and chewy :). Something I learned: I never truly realized how important that last couple minutes were because there is a very fine line between perfect and burnt, so I know I know to pay more careful attention towards the end. Also, you can tell a lot about a cookie, or any other baked good by the taste of its dough or batter. After I brought it out of the fridge, I scooped less than a teaspoon of the dough just to check it flavor and it tasted really good. Then when I tried one of the cookies, I noticed that it was basically the same taste. So if the dough of the batter tastes a little funky then I can almost always assume that the final result won't taste that great either.

In total, I made about 40 cookies but I decided to keep just a couple of them to give out to some of my family and friends . They told me they really liked the cookies, so I know that extra time was worth it! Here are some pictures:

Again, this week after walking into PATH, I talked to Chanee a bit and she told me about this cake class that she used to go to a little while ago, so hopefully I'm going to get a chance to check there out as soon as I can. She said it was called "Wilton's" and it is inside the arts and crafts store "Michael's" in Santa Monica. I haven't had that much time to go yet, but I'm planning on going there as soon as I can because I have been dying to go to a baking class! Most of them during the school year are only for adults and I would have to be 18 or older, so hopefully I will be able to go to this one!

Here is the recipe for this weeks easy, simple, but most of all, delicious sugar cookies:

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,196,143165-230202,00.html

Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day surrounded by loved ones! Thanks so much for reading!

Sincerely,

The Blissful Baker