We tried out a new cookie recipe this year for Valentine’s Day, and we think humans and fairies will enjoy them.
We baked this recipe for the first time last week, as we were celebrating the birthday of Laura Ingalls Wilder on February 7. The recipe originates from The World of Little House and is intended to be similar to the heart-shaped cakes Laura and Mary received for Christmas gifts in Little House on the Prairie. While these treats are delicious, they are decidedly not “cakes.” They are lovely shortbread cookies!
Click photo to enlarge.
We enjoyed them so much last week and we decided to bake up a big batch for Valentine’s day. You can use white sugar for any time of the year, but colored sugar adds a little extra sparkle and love. We used a tiny 1″ cookie cutter for our “fairy cookies,” but you can use a larger one for human-sized cookies. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Valentine Fairy Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon salt
2½ cups all-purpose flour
colored sugar for sprinkling
powdered sugar for sprinkling
Preheat oven to 325°. Cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Mix flour and salt in a separate bowl; stir into butter mixture.
On a floured board, roll out the dough into a circle about 3/8″ thick. (If your dough is overly soft, you may want to refrigerate it for a few minutes to help it firm up.) Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then sprinkle lightly with colored sugars, pressing the sugar in gently with your fingertips.
Bake cookies 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned. Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, sift powdered sugar over the hot cookies. Cool completely, adding more powdered sugar if desired. Store in an airtight container.
(Makes about 75 one-inch cookies.)