Hopeless and hopeful romantics take special note of Saint Valentine’s Day, which comes yearly on February 14th, for anyone new to the subject. My girlfriends and I celebrated Galantines Day* long before the word was coined. With such a big crew of young women, there was always someone breaking up, someone newly paired, someone single again, some with adorable little ones to love. But all of us liked the pretties, the chocolates, and the crafts of Valentine’s Day so we would gather and celebrate our friendships. As bakers, Suzi and I always enjoyed coming up with delicious and festive sweets to share with our beloved people. I quite agree with my stern fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Bowman, that we are giving EVERYONE a valentine because no one should be left out on the day celebrating love.

I do like working with a theme, in art and in baking, so starting with the simple heart shape never fails to interest me. In past February blogs, I have shown several of my St. Valentine’s Day themed collages and other works with different media, but I always come back wanting to create in desserts and/or chocolates. I am a reluctant candy maker, so I work in batter and dough to get more hearts into baked goods.
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Over the years, I’ve collected many heart-shaped cookie cutters and a few sizes of heart-shaped cake pans. My Dad, knowing my fondness of heart-shaped, gifted me with a 3-tiered set of cake pans, for a heart-shaped stacked cake, such as a small wedding cake. I still haven’t yet made one, but I use the smallest pan for petite, stand-alone cakes. I know one of these days I will make a super charged, heart wedding cake, in deep red velvet flavor, frosted in shiny chocolate ganache.
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​In the chilly days between Christmas and New Year’s 2023, two of my oldest girlfriends’ sons popped the question to their girlfriends, on the same day, one in Texas, the other in Seattle. (And yes, both gals said yes, yes!) Now we have two Mother-of-the-Grooms to celebrate and support and I am so excited about the two upcoming weddings and their respective cakes. As I said to both of them (the two M-o-t-G,) I love the love. I love how happy and hopeful these young people are. I always hope they will skip some of the pitfalls of their elders and forge their own love stories. I’m calling 2024 our Love the Love year and I will keep readers abreast of any fun details.

​Meanwhile, back to thinking about V-Day. If you prefer to point and pay for a lovely Valentine’s gift, those with chocolate lovers in their lives cannot go wrong with a box of high-quality candies. Though I’ll always be loyal to See’s, New York’s gilded age chocolatier Louis Sherry has come to my attention, only 142 years after they opened on 5th avenue. I freely admit the gorgeous keepsake tins drew me in, but chocolate connoisseur Rose assured me they also taste delicious. Nostalgic for a time when grandmas kept their button collections in pretty tins, I fell a little bit in love with these tins and am happy for any excuse to give one. They come in three sizes, 2-piece, 12-piece, and 24-piece. The 2-piece size would make a beautiful party favor, set at the top of each place setting, at an elegant gathering, like an afternoon tea for example, ahem. To read their story and see the whole collection, visit the website: Louis Sherry Chocolates

If you are entertaining the idea of creating a Valentine’s Day baked treat and/or would enjoy browsing a catalog of dreamy and fun baking supplies and hearts and flowery merchandise, Fancy Flours Valentine’s Day Digital Catalog is perfect reading on a blustery day, cup of tea in hand. Each page seems more beautiful than the last and is a grand resource for ideas and accessories to execute any pink or red baking plans you may form. The customer service is very good and with expedited shipping, your order may come in time for this Valentine’s Day projects and gifts, if not, there is always next year.
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My idea this year was to put red hearts inside biscotti. I was not sure it could be done and it proved to be almost acceptable, if not entirely successful. I used Suzi’s reliable sugar cookie dough, rolled as thickly as my small heart cutter would cut.
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​However, the different textures of the biscotti dough and the sugar cookie dough produced an odd contrast. Next time I try this design, I will separate out a portion of the biscotti dough to color red for the hearts. You might also notice some of the hearts are upside down in the biscotti. There is definitely room for improvement here, but I did learn a lot from the attempt. I’ll give you the biscotti recipe below, and I hope one of you brave souls will give it a go and report back. Good luck!
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Biscotti with Red Heart Centers

This is a very adaptable biscotti recipe. I have added fresh citrus peel, candied or dried fruit, all kinds of nuts, and poppy seeds with excellent results. Feel free to add a generous cup of nuts, a half cup of chopped dried fruit, and/or a ¼ cup of poppy seeds. Here, I am leaving the dough free from any additions, so the red hearts won’t be pushed out of shape by an errant nut. If at any step the dough becomes too soft to easily be worked, chill until it is firmer.
Makes about 2 dozen
Preheat oven to 350◦F in step #6
Special equipment: sifter or sieve, medium bowl, mixer bowl, stand or hand mixer, silicone spatula, optional rolling pin, small heart-shaped cutter, plastic wrap, tray or plate to chill hearts, silicone baking mat lined baking sheet, cooling rack, cutting board, sharp knife

• 2 ½ cups flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Red food coloring or gel coloring**

1. Into medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. In mixer bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and beat until lighter, about 1 to 2 minutes, scraping bowl as needed. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla. On low speed, add flour mixture. Mix until flour is incorporated.
3. Turn dough out onto work surface and knead briefly to make a dough that holds together. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Wrap 2/3 of the dough in plastic wrap and chill.
4. Return 1/3 of dough to same mixer bowl. Mix in enough red food coloring to achieve desired red color. When dough is uniformly red, scrape onto a sheet of plastic wrap and pat out or roll out dough as thick as your heart cutter is deep. Wrap up and chill for ½ hour up to 2 days. (Colder dough makes cleaner cuts.)
5. When ready to form cookies, take plain colored biscotti dough out of the fridge while cutting out the hearts. Meanwhile, unwrap red colored dough and cut out as many thick hearts as possible. Place hearts on a tray and put in the freezer for ten minutes.
6. On prepared baking sheet, take 1/3 of plain dough and form a rough log, making a groove down the center. Take chilled hearts and place them, points down in the groove, right next to each other, forming a solid line of hearts down the center. Gently pat the plain dough up and over to completely cover the hearts. Pat into biscotti loaf shape, keeping heart points down, Repeat with remaining plain dough and hearts. Refer to photo grid below for help in shaping. Lightly cover with plastic wrap and chill in freezer for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 350◦F.
7. Remove baking sheet from the freezer and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool in baking sheet for 15 minutes or until cool enough to handle. Reduce oven temperature to 325◦ F. Carefully transfer loaves to cutting board.
8. Cut each loaf into ¾” to 1” thick slices. Place slices, cut sides down, on same baking sheet and repeat with 2nd loaf. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, remove from oven and turn slices to other side. Return pan to oven and bake until biscotti are golden brown and dry, about 12 to 15 minutes, checking frequently so they do not over brown.
9. Transfer biscotti to a cooling rack until completely cool. Store in air-tight container, preferably a pretty cookie tin, for a week or two or bag in clear cello bags, tied with ribbon, for gift giving. For longer storage, biscotti can be frozen in their tin.

**Using gel or paste food color is much more expedient than liquid color as it takes much less volume and is easier to control the amount used. Since I did not have any on hand, I used my trusty McCormick red food coloring in the one-ounce bottle which I keep on hand for red velvet cakes.

Below, from top left: a lot of red liquid food color in with an egg white, the batter needing more red color, a better red colored dough, a thick slab of dough after chilling, small, very thick heart cutouts, the hearts being nestled into biscotti dough, logs formed around hearts, loaves after first baking, and cut biscotti after second baking. 

* Per Merriam Webster: “Many people have a kind of love-hate relationship with Valentine’s Day the holiday is disparaged as a manufactured holiday foisted upon us by greeting card companies, and there’s often a sense that it’s only for people who are romantically paired, making it feel rooted in exclusion. All of which set the stage perfectly for Galentine’s Day. That’s right: Galentine’s Day—a day for women to celebrate their friendships with their lady friends. It’s Valentine’s Day with your gals.”