Be Mine!

Great sugar cookie recipe I got out of my son's Highlights magazine:

Icing:

1 cup confection sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 Tbs Half & Half 

Red Food coloring

Additional milk as needed. 

Add extracts and Half & Half to the confection sugar and mix well. Add milk as needed to reach thick but spreadable consistency.  Pour some into a separate bowl and add red food coloring. 5 drops will get you red. Less will get you caring shades of pink. I used red and white then mixed what was left for pink. 

These were iced and then sprinkled with turbinado sugar. 

Dipping Chocolate:

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 Tbs shortening 

I've always used almond bark but didn't have it this time and wanted to know how to make it from scratch anyway. This doesn't get as hard as almond bark or the dipping chips but is handier and taste much better. 

Use the smallest microwaveable bowl you can so you can use as little chocolate as possible.

Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Microwave another 30 seconds. Stir really well. It won't seam like its loosening at first but really work it. Chocolate scorches very easily so after that first minute in the microwave you have to be extremely careful. Microwave 10 additional seconds as needed until smooth. Again, really work it stirring after each microwave. It will loosen up much more than you think. 

Paint the chocolate on with your fingers or some fancy tool.