I hope you had a wonderful long weekend!
What did you get up to? Happy Chinese New Year! Did you enjoy a noodle feast? Spend some time with your loved ones on Family Day? I had the good fortune to escape to gorgeous Tofino with my family for a little holiday. We had a great time walking the long, expansive coastal beaches, stretching our limbs at an Ancient Cedar Spa yoga class and splashing our gumboots in the plunging surf.
How close we all are in Vancouver to such wild west coast beauty! Travelling to Tofino was a great way to treasure the Family Day Long weekend and to shower our beloved sister Shannon with affection before her imminent departure to Australia on Monday. (Hard to believe it’s so soon!)
The drive to Tofino from Vancouver always seems a little endless, so on top of packing a sweet audio book for the car, I wanted to bake some goodies to keep the car-folk perky. I came across a recipe for these Cherry Chocolate Kiss Cookies last week and thought they’d be great to bake for the group. On top of being pink tinged and “Valentine’s” themed, they looked delicious and slightly resembled something naughty. Hilarious! Perfect nipples I mean nibbles…for a long drive. (ha.. ha..)
The name Cherry Chocolate Kiss Cookies seemed a tad bit long and boring so I decided to amp up their attraction with a new name inspired by the movie Chocolat:
Nipples of Venus
Sexy right? Well I think they have got to be one of the sexiest cookies out there.
I slightly altered Curvy Carrot’s recipe so that I could sidestep the maraschino cherries. I didn’t have any cherries and was running on a time crunch so I pulled out an old favourite shortbread recipe instead. Plus maraschino cherries always weird me out. I turned to my Vancouver Sun Best Of cookbook collection for the shortbread recipe nd then halved its quantity since it seemed too large.
Any-Way-You-Like-It Shortbread
(Settle down now Vancouver Sun!)
Yield: 2 dozen Prep Time: 45 mins Bake Time: 25-30 mins Total: 1 1/2 hours ish. Bake Temp: 300 F.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour 1/3 cup cornstarch 1 cup butter, room temperature 1/2 cup icing sugar 1/4 cup chopped organic dried cranberries (not craisins!) smidgen pink food gel colouring 30 Hersheys chocolate kisses
Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and cornstarch. In large bowl or stand up mixer, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. Gradually stir in flour mixture, chopped dried cranberries to butter mixture and stir until dough is only just mixed together. Add a smidgen of pink colouring gel and stir gently until dough reaches desired colour. Remove dough from bowl and gather together. 2. On a lightly floured surface knead dough lightly until it forms a smooth ball. If you feel like your dough needs more pink to it, now is the time to add more die. Divide dough in half and press each half into a round, 2 cm think. Wrap each round in saran wrap and refrigerate 30 mins. 3. Preheat oven to 300 F. Unwrap dough and lightly massage with hands to make it easier to work with. Break off small pieces and roll dough between palms to form small balls cookie size. Gently squish balls down and place on ungreased cookie sheets (lined with parchment paper if you like). Once sheet(s) are filled with cookies, bake cookies in oven for 25-30 minutes. Check cookies halfway through to gauge their baking time. 4. While cookies are baking, unwrap Hershey kisses from foil. Remove cookies from oven and lift off trays with a metal baking spatula onto cooling wrack. Immediately press down Hershey kisses into centres of the cookies. Cool completely before touching, moving or transporting cookies. If you don’t then the Hershey kisses will melt and ooze all over the place. They must be kept still to retain their shape. 5. Serve and enjoy once completely cooled.Forming the dough:
Rolling the dough to its thinner form
The final product
Enjoy your tantalizingly seductive cookies ladies and gents! (and I hope a lot of laughs too)
Love,
Heather
Blue Owl Treats 