Valentine Yummies with Franny!

I am soooo excited to have the amazing Franny from So Good... So Franny! and Mind Reader. She is a great friend and a wonderful blogger. Please stop by her blogs (the first is a cooking blog and the second is a book review blog) and say hello!

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When my good friend Emily asked me to do a guest post for her blog I accepted straight away. But I didn’t imagine it would be such a hard task!

Valentine’s Day is such an annoying holiday for me, as every single year I end up having no money and doing absolutely nothing. This year we’re having guests so not so much of a choice, but we’ll surely make something special when the guests are gone to make up for the lost time.

Valentine’s Day is a day for gifts. To buy gifts. To receive gifts. To express love to our other halves. To show how much we care (even though it should be done every single day).

However, if you’re broke (like me) but you still want to do something special and romantic for your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife, here’s a recipe to make your loved one crawl at your feet J

SUGAR HEARTS SANDWICH COOKIES 

Ingredients

• 1 recipe Sugar Cookie Dough, at room temperature
• 6 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 tablespoon pomegranate juice
• Small red sugar hearts, for decorating
• Equipment: 2 1/4-inch round cookie cutter, 1 1/2-by-1-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter

Directions

Start with Alton's Sugar Cookie dough recipe.

Prepare dough as directed and chill for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle a work surface and rolling pin with confectioner's sugar and roll out dough to 1/8-inch thick. Move dough frequently to prevent it from sticking and add more confectioner's sugar to the work surface and rolling pin as needed. With a 2 1/4-inch round cookie cutter, cut 72 dough rounds, re-rolling dough as needed. With a small heart-shaped cookie cutter (about 1 1/2-by-1-inch), cut hearts from the center of half the dough rounds. Place the rounds and cutouts about 1 inch apart on parchment -lined baking sheets. Bake until just set but not brown, about 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the pan slightly before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the filling: In a small bowl, whisk together the cream cheese, butter, confectioner's sugar, and pomegranate juice until smooth and fluffy. Spread about 1 teaspoon filling on each round cookie and top with a cut-out cookie. Place a red candy heart in the center of each. Leftover filling can be used to sandwich the small hearts together.

Mmmmm! This sounds so delicious, Franny! I've never had anything with pomegranate juice before. Thank you so much for sharing it with us!