blushing sugar cookies.

In preparation for this week's love themed festivities, I rolled up my (pajama) sleeves on Sunday morning and got to baking something appropriately heart-shaped. Fittingly for a girl who lives in a tiny apartment, I decided on miniature cookies and used just the inside of my linzer heart cookie cutter to make treats only barely bigger than your average conversation heart.
I used Mark Bittman's sugar cookie recipe, which is an awfully good thing to have in your real or imagined recipe box. It's tried and true and can serve as the base for any number of sugary delights.

I've never aced cookie rolling. If you're like me and and can't quite manage to get an evenly thick dough, my only council is to watch your cookies carefully in the oven. Thin cookies will brown much more quickly than their heftier traymates. For softer cookies, consider taking them out of the oven after only five or six minutes. 
For the glaze, I wanted something subtle enough to not scare off the valentine-weary but pink and tasty enough to encourage gobbling. I mixed vanilla extract with bottled pomegranate juice and confectioners sugar. About two cups of confectioner's sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and a little less than 1/2 cup of pomegranate juice was right for me, but glaze making is one of those things that you're better off winging. A little of this, a little of that, until it's just right.

I think that next time I endeavor to make something valentine-y, I will crush up pomegranates myself for a slightly pulpier glaze in a slightly less bashful hue. If you want to achieve a more eye-popping shade of pink  (verging on purple), you might consider the mighty blood orange.

Happy love week.

You have read this article food / food coloring / pomegranate glaze / sugar cookies / valentine's day with the title blushing sugar cookies.. You can bookmark this page URL http://newbieny.blogspot.com/2013/02/blushing-sugar-cookies.html. Thanks!