Baking for Valentine's Day 2019
I love holidays and every year I try to make something homemade and meaningful to give to my nearest and dearest on St. Valentine’s Day.
This year, I was able to take some time from my very busy schedule to bake and decorate dozens of heart-shaped cookies in different sizes and shades of pink, red and white. I made cookies for everyone who works at my Bedford, New York farm, for colleagues at my Manhattan office, and of course, for close friends and family - everyone loved them. I showed some of my cookies during my special Facebook LIVE. If you missed our broadcast, you can still watch the video - just click on this highlighted link.
Enjoy these photos. And I hope you all had a very lovely Valentine's Day.
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- The night before Valentine’s Day, after a busy morning and afternoon, I went home to bake more than 75 heart-shaped sugar cookies. It’s such a treat for me to bake, it’s become an annual tradition – if you recall, I did the same last year.
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- You can find wonderful sugar cookie dough recipes on MarthaStewart.com. Try to make the dough ahead of time. Chilled dough will help retain the shape of the cookies; soft, warm dough tends to lose its shape when cut and moved. And roll out the dough in small batches, so it’s easier to manage.
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- Once these doughs were made, they were wrapped and chilled for at least 30-minutes. The doughs get really hard, but they roll out beautifully.
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- The cookies are about 1/8-inch thick and baked until golden brown – about 10-minutes.
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- I made large and small cookies – some with decorative edges, and some left smooth.
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- It took me at least two-hours to do all these cookies, but for me it was lots of fun. Sugar cookies are delicious anytime on their own, but they also make ideal holiday cookies when decorated with royal icing.
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- I used royal icing made from confectioner’s sugar, meringue from my own egg whites, food coloring, and water, and then hand-dipped each cookie very carefully. I did this instead of damming and flooding, which is a much more precise method.
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- I dipped just the top of the cookie, so each one looks smooth and perfect.
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- The frosting has to be exactly the right consistency to dip the cookies satisfactorily. And remove them very carefully, letting the excess drip back into the plate.
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- This light pink cookie came out perfectly.
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- I love how they look on this drying rack.
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- After coating the cookies, they were sprinkled with sanding sugar that I had colored using a fine-powdered food coloring. The sugar must be applied immediately so it gets imbedded.
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- I try to make every one a little different by using a variety of sanding sugars and designs.
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- I also use words piped with frosting.
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- Some have decorative borders and others have simple dots piped around the perimeter – it really dresses up the cookies.
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- Here is a red one with white dots of frosting around the edge. For this cookie, I just colored the sugar with red food coloring and came out with this bold and festive Valentine red.
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- On this cookie, I wrote “love” in script and added both dots and a flower.
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- I showed several of my cookie creations on yesterday’s Facebook LIVE – I hope you caught the show, but if not, just click on the link above and watch the video.
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- I made a fun pomegranate margarita using juice from our friends at POM Wonderful. I also made a sandwich cookie and a delicious crisp – all perfect for Valentine’s Day. https://www.pomwonderful.com/
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- We love using Domino whenever recipes call for sugar. Thank you to Domino for being a steadfast sponsor and supporter of our Facebook LIVE broadcasts and my television show, “Martha Bakes”. Domino is used on the east coast, while their C&H brand sugar is used on the west coast. https://www.chsugar.com https://www.dominosugar.com
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- Here are my red Valentine’s cookies – they look great on these square white plates.
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- These are some of the Brazilian sandwich cookies called casadinhos that we made on Facebook LIVE. Portuguese for “married,” casadinhos are bite-size sandwich cookies that are often served at weddings in Brazil. For our Valentine’s Day version, we made them heart-shaped and filled with them with guava. I first made these in Season-9 of “Martha Bakes”. The recipe is also available on MarthaStewart.com
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- After work, I enjoyed a lovely Valentine’s dinner with family and close friends hosted by my daughter, Alexis. “Tio” Kevin gave Jude and Truman these giant balloons from Balloon Saloon in Manhattan – two hearts, and one T and one J. www.balloonsaloon.com
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- I received this from Kevin – caviar from Russ and Daughters placed in a gift box and surrounded with Fritos corn chips. www.russanddaughters.com
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- We decorated around each plate with my big heart cookies – everyone loved them.
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- It was a wonderful occasion enjoyed by all. Valentine’s Day 2019 may be over, but I hope you take some time to make some delicious cookies this weekend for all your loved ones. And go to my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 to see what my granddaughter Jude gave to all her friends for Valentine’s Day – another great weekend project you’ll love!
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