Valentine's Day Treat

Last week I attempted to make Valentine's Rice Krispies Treats... and it was a major fail. I think the marshmallows I used were too old. They weren't expired, but just not fresh enough I think. So, as promised, I tried again today with new marshmallows and they turned out fabulously.

Honestly I had never made Rice Krispies Treats until a few weeks ago. But they are super easy. Just use the recipe from the Rice Krispies website: Valentine Cut-Out Treats Recipe. I had some leftover cupcake frosting cans from my daughter's birthday cupcakes. (I'll probably post about her birthday soon because it was awesome!) They were super fun to make, and I took some to my little friend when I dropped her off at her gymnastics class today.

Of course I had to make black ones!

I think this one is the prettiest... and I want to eat it right now!

And then there's this handsome mustache heart man

I used some of the mini hearts to make little sandwiches. So tasty!

A few tips:

• Butter! Butter the pan or cookies sheet that you put the Rice Krispies mixture on, butter your hands so they don't get sticky while you press it all down, and butter your cookie cutters. 
• After you use your cookie cutters to cut out all the shapes you can, squish the leftovers together, much like you would if you were making sugar cookies. As tempting as it was to just eat it, I was actually able to get a bunch more hearts out of it after I squished it all together.
• Make sure to eat them within a day or so because they lose their "krispie" pretty quickly.

If you're looking for a last minute Valentine's Day gift, check out the pretty jewelry and candles in my Etsy Shop, Rachel's Craft Trove. Happy Valentine's Day! (in two days)

A Sweet Fail

I was going to post a fun Valentine's Day treat but that failed miserably. Probably next week I will try again. But I was so mad that it didn't work out so I made cookies instead. So I will share the recipe because they are the best cookies ever. I got them from kidsinthesink.com, which appears to be broken right now. So if I post the recipe then I can come back and get it later, and so you can you.

The picture is dark because I didn't take the time to take a good picture because I wanted to eat this cookie immediately.

Cookies:
1 cup butter*
¾ cup dark brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 tbsp molasses
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 ½ cups flour
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
⅛ tsp cinnamon
1 ½ cups quick oats

Cream Filling:*
2 tsp very hot water
¼ tsp salt
1 (7 oz.) jar marshmallow cream
½ cup shortening
⅓ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp vanilla

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350° and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. With a mixer*, cream the butter, sugars, molasses, vanilla, and eggs.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and stir to combine; mix in the oats.
5. Drop tablespoon* sized scoops onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10-12* minutes, until just starting to brown around the edges. Be careful not to over-bake them; they will look moist.
6. While the cookies are baking, in a small bowl, dissolve the salt in the hot water and allow to cool to room temperature.
7. Combine the marshmallow cream, shortening, powdered sugar, and vanilla and mix on high until fluffy.
8. Add the salt water and mix well.
9. Spread the filling onto the flat side of one cookie and top with another.

*My Notes*
The original recipe calls for unsalted butter but I didn't find it made much of a difference. I also like to double the cream filling recipe, but really I could probably just 1 1/2 it. It definitely isn't enough cream filling though. Original recipe also says to use your stand mixer, but if you can't shell out $200+ for a Kitchen Aid (like me) a hand mixer will work just fine. And my last note: tablespoon sized scoops of cookie dough are way too big. I used a teaspoon and sometimes those are still too big. The cookies will flatten out and spread. And definitely check the cookies at around 5 minutes, they burn very quickly.

Hopefully it doesn't take you three tries to get them right like it did me. :) But they are so good. And in case you can't find kidsinthesink anymore like I can't, then you can find it here.