Heart Cookies (for Valentines, sure, but really always) with Egg-Free Option

I make these cookies year-round, but it's only on Valentines day that I top them with light pink frosting. Sometimes I add spices and call them Autumn Spice Cookies, other times they're branded as Christmas Cookies... really it's just the best simple cookie recipe ever and the possibilities are endless. I recommend starting with all of your ingredients at room temperature and chilling your dough for 30 minutes before rolling out. Egg free option below in the foot notes!

Heart Cookies 

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg (or a flax egg*)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

.5 tea spoon almond extract

3 cups flour

1.5 teaspoons baking soda

pinch of salt

Cream together the butter and sugar, once mixed add the egg, once mixed add the extracts.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt, then stir into the wet ingredients.

When a dough forms, chill for 30 minutes and roll out, using cookie cutters if you like. If you want a simpler route, roll into a log, freeze for an hour, and then slice into medallions. 

Bake at 350 for 7-10 minutes (depends how you like your cookies and your oven, so keep an eye out)

Dusty Rose Frosting

This all-time favourite frosting is the simple combo of 1-2 cups icing sugar (aka powdered sugar aka fairy dust) with 1/8 to 1/4 cups 35% whipping cream. It depends on how thick you want your frosting, so play around. 

To achieve the colour -  It comes from mixing the bare minimum of red food colouring (1 drop) with 1 tablespoon or more of vanilla extract. Brown + red + white = dusty rose!

Make it Egg-Free

We don't have any egg allergies, but Oli did have one as a youngster which he's thankfully outgrown. Still, I'm often out of eggs but craving cookies, so this substitute is a welcome one! 

Mix 3 tablespoons water with 1 tablespoon ground flax seed. 

Refrigerate for 30 minutes and see the liquid turn into a gel. Use as you would an egg in baking.