Let's make Whoopie!

We all know that Valentine's Day is coming up so why not turn something round into a heart?!?  With a little extra time and effort you can make heart shaped whoopie cookies.  They turned out really cute and the kids love them!

Here's what I did (recipe at bottom of post):

After the dough sat in the fridge overnight (because we ran out of the time the night prior) I used powered sugar to "flour" my rolling pin.  I took a little out at a time and flattened it on the parchment paper then used a heart shaped cookie cutter.  After I laid them all out on the sheet I dusted them with powered sugar.

After they baked and cooled I used a pastry bag to put the filling on one inside of the cookie.  Make sure you have a lot so it goes to the edges when the two cookies are closed.

 Press the cookies together but not all the way.  You want to leave some space between the two.

Lightly press the edges into sprinkles or your choice of decoration.

Indulge! 

 To go along with the heart theme we had heart shaped French Toast for dinner.  I only do this on nights my husband is out of town.  The kids love it!

Whoopie Cookies

Cookies:
1 3/4 flour
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I used natural b/c I had it on hand)
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1 /2 sticks) butter, room temp
1 egg

Filling:
1 cup plu 2 TBL powdered sugar
3/4 (1 1 /2 sticks) cup butter, room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
sprinkles or your choice of decoration

1. Preheat oven to 350 (do not preheat until after your dough has chilled and you are ready to actually bake!).   Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In medium bowl, whisk flour, cocoa and salt together.
3. In a standing mixer bowl beat sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.  Add egg and mix well.
4. Add dry ingredients into butter mixture and beat until blended.  Refrigerate the dough for an hour or longer.
5. Using dough, scoop 1 tablespoon of dough out and roll into smooth balls.  Place the balls onto the parchment paper at least 2 inches apart.
6. Using the bottom of a flat glass, flatten each ball of dough into a 2-inch round circle.
7. Bake until they do not look wet, or for about 11 minutes.
8. Cool on tray for 5 minutes then cool completely on rack.
9. For filling: place the butter in a standing mixer bowl and beat until smooth.  Add powder sugar and beat until blended well.
10. To assemble: Spread 2 heaping teaspoons of filling evenly over flat side of 1 cookie to edges.  Top with another cookie.
11. Roll cookies in sprinkles or other decoration.

This recipe is adapted from the www.kidscookingco.com.  We made these over Christmas there with peppermint filling and rolled in crushed peppermint.

Chocolate Chips + Oats = Fun Treats!

Last week the kids and I decided to make cookies.  It had snowed here, finally, which meant we were pretty much stuck at home since Texans don't mix snow/ice and driving.  I pulled out the chocolate chips and noticed a recipe on the back for Milk Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies.  I'm not going to type out the recipe but you can click on this link to find it on Nestle's website.

*I did make my own revisions to the recipe.  I used 3/4 white flour and 3/4 whole wheat flour.  I also mixed the egg, milk and vanilla in a bowl together before I added to the combined ingredients (not sure if that makes a difference or not).  Lastly, I set aside about 1/2 of the chocolate chips.  After I rolled the dough into balls I placed two to three of the chocolate chips on top of the dough balls.  This gives the cookies a nice extra chocolate appearance.

Treat #1 - Cookies and milk

My daughter and I thought it would be fun to make a big cookie for daddy in the shape of a heart.  Could be cute for Valentines Day!

Next time I won't make the point so close to the edge of the pan.

Treat #2 - Heart shaped GIANT cookie

Treat #3 - Ice Cream Cookie sandwich rolled in mini chocolate chips

Treat #4 - Cookies with Vanilla Ice Cream (Blue Bell, of course) drizzled with mini chocolate chips

My daughter - All done!

Localfunforkidsfriday

Heart Pizza

Thursday night before I left for Colorado the kids and I made a homemade pizza.  Ella likes to put on the pepperoni.  In the spirit of Valentines Day I made it into a heart shape.  She just loved that!  It was a huge hit!!

Peanut Blossom Cookies with Reese's PB Hearts

Rather than make a craft today my daughter and I made cookies.  I saw Reese's Peanut Butter Hearts at Target the other day and thought they'd be yummy on a cookie.  Oh. My. Gosh.  They are delicious!  These might be one of my favorite cookies.  Ever.  And I'm not really even a Reese's fan.  You have to try these.  You won't be sorry.  You can use a regular 'ole Hershey Kiss or any type of chocolate will work.  Be creative!  Here is the recipe I used that I found on the back of a Hershey's cookbook.

1 (8 oz) bag of Kisses (or in this case Reese's PB Hearts)
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
sugar

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.  Remove wrappers from chocolates.  2.  Beat shortening and peanut butter in a large bowl until well blended.  Add 1/3 cup sugar and brown sugar; beat until light and fluffy.  Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.  Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.  3.  Shape dough into 1-inch balls.  Roll in sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Immediately press a Kiss (or your preference of chocolate) into center of cookie; cookie will crack around edges.  Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely.

I like to leave the cookies on the cookie sheet and put them directly into the fridge or freezer after placing the chocolate on so the chocolate sets.  Otherwise you may end up with a melted chocolate blob on top of your cookies.

Eat one while they're nice and warm but be warned you probably won't be able to eat just one.  Yummy!!

Valentine Mailbox

In February's issue of Family Fun there's a craft under "Everyday Fun" called "Chews a Card".  They make Valentine mailboxes using empty Kleenex boxes.  Their version of mailboxes are an alien and cat, hence the "chews" in the title.  Ella didn't want to make an animal but we used the same concept and she created her own Valentine mailbox.  This was not difficult as long as I was cutting the larger strips of paper for her.  She did most of the work.

Supplies

Ready for all those Valentines! 

Handprint Hearts

I saw this cute Valentine idea over on The Idea Room for Handprint Valentines.   We decided to make one Valentine with both of the kids handprints since the little guy is only 1 and can't write yet.  Both kids really enjoyed this and much to my surprise it wasn't too messy (I'm not into big messy crafts).  We headed over to Hobby Lobby to pick up some paint.  Note to self: Poster Paint stampers don't work on hands because it dries too fast!  Back-up was washable red paint and acrylic pink paint.  These worked like a charm.

We made five: Daddy, grandparents and daughter requested to send one to her Godmother

The finished cards signed by the four year old!

Valentine Centerpiece

If you're looking for a quick and easy Valentine decoration for your home here is one!  All you need is a hurricane candle holder or any candle holder will do, a candle and a bag of conversation hearts.  Pour the bag into your hurricane glass and then place your candle in the hearts and there you go.  Normally I use a white candle but I could only find a red one so we're using red this year. :)  I have two small candle holders that are also hurricane glass and was going to fill them as well but when I got to the checkout counter I noticed the second bag had a hole and they were spilling out.  I keep forgetting to buy another.  Next year!

Valentine Kid Cards

I don't know about you but some of the store bought Valentines can be really cheesy.  Don't get me wrong, I've purchased them in the past and I'm sure I will purchase them again in the future.  However, I stumbled across the cutest Valentines on a designer, Carina Gardner's, blog and she provides a free download here or for last year's download click here.  My daughter wrote a few out tonight to give to some friends tomorrow for a playdate.

We attached ours to Skittles!

A couple days ago we made Carina's cards from last year and after we cut out the cards we glued them to pink construction paper and then attached our candy.  I didn't take any photos but that turned out really cute.  We will do that again for her class party next week except leave off the candy since they can't bring any to school. :(

Valentine Popcorn

I saw this yummy looking White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn here.  I love The Idea Room's blog.  If you haven't been there you should.  I don't know about you but I've had a bowl in the pantry of leftover mini candy canes from Christmas waiting for something fun to happen to them!

Here's what you need to get started:
8-10 cups popcorn
8 oz white chocolate (chips or bark)
1 tsp Peppermint extract
*1.5 cups peppermint, finely chopped
chocolate chips

*I used 1.25 cups and had way too much.  1 cup would have been enough for us.

First, you need to make 8-10 cups of popcorn and put in a big bowl.  We cheated and made two bags of microwavable popcorn since we don't have a real popcorn maker.  I measured out 10 cups and took out the leftover kernels.  Next, melt 8 oz of white chocolate.  We used two 4 oz bars of Nestle white chocolate baking bars and melted them in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between.  Then, added a capful of peppermint extract.  Next, pour the white chocolate over the popcorn and combine it well so all popcorn is covered.  Sprinkle the finely chopped peppermint to the popcorn and cover well.  Lay the popcorn out on a baking sheet covered with wax paper to dry.  While it's drying melt some chocolate chips in the microwave.  We used 1 cup and had some leftover so we poured it over our remaining plain popcorn.  Delish!  Mine sort of looks like small clumps on the popcorn but you can probably melt it longer or put it in a ziploc bag and cut the corner to squeeze the chocolate out the corner.

 

Before we added the chocolate

After we added the chocolate 

My daughter and I had so much fun making this treat.  It was absolutely divine.  We put it in baggies and attached a Valentine to each bag and off they went with me to bookclub!

Enjoy :)