Valentine’s Day can be fun whether you’re in a romantic relationship or not. It’s a great excuse to cook some loving indulgent food like these Valentine’s Day Chocolate Dipped Cookies. They make a great romantic gift, perfect to feed to work colleagues, or lovely to share with friends and family. They have a nice biscuit-like crunch to them, and the chocolate gives them a lovely creamy contrast.
The cookie recipe itself is very simple, and can easily be used for any occasion, they're great for birthday parties, or just because!. The heart-shaped cookie cutter is not essential - use any shape you’d like for either Valentine’s Day or any time of year. For a healthier option, use a brown unrefined sugar or coconut palm sugar, however, if you’re looking for the classic pale colour on the cookies, then caster sugar is best.
Sunflower oil works very well with this recipe as the fat, but you can use any kind of oil, or you can use vegan butter / margarine instead. To hold the mixture together, I’ve used 2 linseed eggs (1 linseed egg is 1 tablespoon of milled linseed mixed with 3 tablespoon of water). If you don’t have linseed, you can replace them with chia seeds. And of course feel free to add other flavourings in to the mix, like cinnamon, orange essence, almond essence…. What I love about basic recipes is that you can adapt them depending on what flavours you like best.
Decorating these is the fun part, and again, you can get creative and do it how your loved one likes best. I thought it was cute to dip half the cookie into some chocolate and sprinkle with freeze dried strawberries or raspberries. The red colour is obviously essential for Valentine’s Day! You could also sprinkle with some chopped pistachios which go deliciously with chocolate and strawberry flavours.
I think they look so cute using both white and dark chocolate, but depends on your creative style. For the healthier version use a dark chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids, but any dark vegan chocolate will work. If using white chocolate, you can find it in places like Sainsbury's who have a free from range with vegan white chocolate. There are so many places out there now doing vegan chocolate it is quite easy to come by. You could of course use plain or coloured icing instead of chocolate, especially if you are making these for children!
Get creative with the decorations and look forward to the smiles you’ll get from anyone you gift these to!
Valentine’s Day Chocolate Dipped Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie cutter any shape but hearts are lovely
Ingredients
Cookies
- 250 g plain (all purpose) flour (plus extra for rolling cookies on)
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 150 g coconut palm sugar / caster sugar (to give the cookies a whiter colour use caster sugar)
- 2 tablespoon milled linseed/flaxseed (mixed with 6 tablespoon water)
- 80 ml sunflower oil
- 2 teaspoon vanilla essence
Decoration
- 100 g dark vegan chocolate
- 100 g white vegan chocolate (check Sainsbury's Free From section)
- 50 g freeze dried strawberries or raspberries
- 50 g chopped nuts (optional, pistachios work very well)
Instructions
Cookies
- Pre heat oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas Mark 4.
- Put the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl. Mix.
- Make sure the milled linseed/flaxseed has been mixed with the water. Leave it for a few minutes and it will form a sort of gel.
- In a separate bowl to the flour mixture, mix the linseed/flaxssed, oil and vanilla together. Then add to the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Mix well (you can also do this with your hands).
- Sprinkle some flour on your kitchen surface. Roll out the dough to about 3mm thick. Add extra flour if dough is still too wet.
- Cut the dough into heart shapes or shape of choice using a cookie cutter.
- Place the cut cookie dough on a baking tray with baking parchment. Cook for 10-12 minutes. They are ready when they have just a very slight browning to them. Don’t worry if the cookies are still a little soft in the middle - they will harden as they cool.
- Put the cookies on a cooling rack. Once cool they can be decorated.
Decoration
- Place a glass bowl over simmering water, and put chopped white or dark chocolate in the bowl to melt.
- Once melted, dip halve a cookie into the chocolate and immediately sprinkle with the dried fruit. You can also sprinkle with chopped pistachios if desired.
- Repeat process with the other colour chocolate on the rest of the cookies. Or you can use both colour chocolates on one cookie and make patterns using a toothpick.
Nutrition
Toni says
This is such a delicious and fun recipe! Very easy to make too.
Keri Bevan says
How sweet are these?? I've bookmarked this recipe to make for Valentine's Day. Thank you for another great recipe!
Michelle says
Can't wait to give these a try for V-Day this year! My boys are excited to help me make them!
Pam says
These are so adorable, and I just love all the different ways you decorated them for Valentines Day!