Chocolate Raspberry Cookie Recipe (Heart-Shaped Cookies)

Yesterday, my husband's sister Lya (she's a high-schooler now) told me she was secretly in love with a boy when she was in fifth grade. For Valentine's Day, she was too shy to say anything so she gave him heart-shaped chocolate cookies and a sock monkey anonymously. The guy never knew it was from her. Now that she goes to an all-girl school, I told her we should find the boy and give him the same Valentine presents. She said: "No way!", plus she's totally moved on from her first school crush. Ahh kids!

Of course, we still baked the cookies. I made a few changes by flavoring the chocolate cookie dough with raspberry extract and covered the top with raspberry chocolate. I used Hershey's raspberry kisses, which are available in stores this Valentine season.

Strawberry Mint Milano Cookies (Chocolate Sandwich Cookies)

February 14th is nearly on its way, and the color of these delicious strawberry-mint thin, crisp butter cookies is reminiscent of Valentine's Day. I'm planning a super romantic dinner for Lulu. I was home alone today, so I took the opportunity to start testing out some of the dishes to make a perfect Valentine's Day dinner.

Pink was the theme color I was looking for. I couldn't find strawberry-flavored white chocolate at the store, so I substituted pink-colored mint chocolate apeels and bought some strawberry extract. The sandwich cookies freeze well, so I stacked and stored them for Valentine's Day.

Unfortunately, after taste-testing the cookies I realized I forgot to make them heart-shaped! I was a little bummed out. If you're planning on making these cookies for your sweetie, draw hearts on the other side of the parchment paper with a pencil, and pipe the cookie batter along the line of the heart. Oh well, I'm sure Lulu won't mind!

** Note: The strawberry mint Milanos are pictured with tuile cookies.