Heart of Gold Cookies
Heart of Gold Cookies
(6)
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| Yield: | 4 to 4 1/2 dozen 3" cookies |
Ingredients
Chocolate Cookies
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1 ounce semisweet or unsweetened chocolate
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
Vanilla Cookies
- King Arthur Guaranteed Sugar Cookies, dough prepared but not baked
Directions
1) To make the chocolate cookies: Melt the chocolate with the butter, in a microwave oven or double boiler set over a burner. Set it aside.
2) In a large bowl, mix together the sugars. Pour the chocolate/butter into the bowl, stirring to combine.
3) Add the corn syrup, vanilla, egg, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cocoa, stirring to combine.
4) Stir in the flour; the dough will be soft and smooth. Cover it, and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours, until it's solidified and stiffened up.
5) While the chocolate dough is chilling, make the vanilla cookie dough.
6) Lightly grease (or line with parchment) a couple of baking sheets. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
7) Using a very slightly heaped tablespoon cookie scoop, drop six balls of vanilla cookie dough on one of the baking sheets, then six balls of chocolate cookie dough, spacing them evenly with about 2" between them. If you don't have a tablespoon cookie scoop, the dough balls should be a generous 1 1/4" in diameter. Gently flatten each ball of dough to about 2" across.
8) Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. While they're baking, prepare your next sheet of cookies for the oven.
9) Remove the cookies from the oven, and set your timer for 4 minutes. After 4 minutes, use a 1 3/4" to 2" heart-shaped cutter to cut a heart out of the center of each of the cookies. Quickly transfer the hearts to cookies of the opposite flavor, gently pressing them into the heart-shaped opening in the center of each. You'll now have vanilla cookies with chocolate hearts, and chocolate cookies with vanilla hearts.
10) Change the look by putting the vanilla hearts bottom-side-up in the chocolate cookies; the bottom of the cookie will be medium-gold, rather than cream-colored. This yields more of a "heart of gold" look.
11) Repeat with the remaining cookie dough. You'll have some leftover vanilla cookie dough, enough to make about 8 cookies. Cut hearts out of the center, and flip them over so the bottom's on the top: heart of gold!
Yield: about 4 to 4 1/2 dozen cookies.
Reviews
- 09/27/2011
- Has anyone tried coloring half of the dough to make different colored cookies? Red for valentine's day, pastels for easter?
That should work just fine with this dough. MJR @ KAF
03/25/2011- This receives 5 stars with my procedure; otherwise 4.5. Both the recipes tasted delicious. The chocolate was a little crumblier & I had to add a little more cream (what I had on hand) to bring the dough together. I had to make one substitution for the chocolate dough- I used 1/2 dutch process cocoa & 1/2 black cocoa (didn't have double-dutch). Made these with my grandbaby for her mom for Valentine's Day. My procedure (no hot pans to deal with around little ones or worry of the hearts falling out after baked): I made both doughs, rolled them into 3" diameter logs, wrapped in plastic & refrigerated overnight. Next morning we cut 3/8" thick slices of each dough, placed flat, cut out the hearts, swapped them & baked as directed. They turned out beautifully! Didn't have any puff up around edges, they baked together nicely. The cookies disappeared quickly & the post office employees REALLY appreciated them. This is definitely a keeper. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your success with us. ~Amy
02/16/2011- A really clever idea and it worked just great. Everyone at the meeting where I took them really liked the idea especially for Valentine's Day, but we all agreed they are a little dull in taste.
- 02/12/2011
- It's a great recipe. I baked the cookies for 8-10 minutes (my pan is really heavy.) When you work fast the do really well.
- 01/25/2011
- How about chocolate fudge and peanut butter for the two types of cookie?
Give it a try! Let us know how it turns out! - kelsey
- 01/25/2011
- Why wouldn't you swap out the "center hearts" before they are baked - it seems as if that would be a better way to insure that they "stick", especially since you went through the trouble of getting two compatible recipes
Either method will work, using unbaked or baked dough. Unbaked dough may tend to puff up around the edges of the cutouts, so test bake a few first to be sure. MJR @ KAF
