Whole Wheat Almond Sugar Cookie Hearts

Valentines and Christmas are my two favorite seasons to make Sugar Cookies.  Those two holidays don't seem the same without some kind of sugar cookie to enjoy through the festivities. This recipe is a healthier, sugar cookie recipe that you will love, and will help if you are worried about  too much "junk" for the kids.  By the time you add cupcakes, candy, and chocolates to a Valentines party, you can end up with a lot of sugar and food coloring.  This sugar cookie is lighter on the sugar than most, and uses whole wheat flour and almond meal as the base, which transforms it into a healthier version of our old favorite Sugar Cookie.  It has delicious, buttery, and lightly sweet almond flavor that reminds me of a cross between a shortbread cookie and a Digestive cookie.  They are  perfect with a cup of tea. I topped these with two different glazes; one is an almond glaze, made of organic powdered sugar, pure vanilla and cream, the other is made with pure organic strawberry powder, organic powdered sugar, vanilla and cream. The past few years, I have been trying to come up with ways to add color and beauty when I cook without adding food coloring or overly processed decorations that really play havoc with all of our health; these are a couple of the ideas I came up with. I have used this  icing for scones, and various cookies, and it works nicely;  Plain and simple, but still lovely and delicious.

Whole Wheat Almond Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour (I prefer the White Whole Wheat, especially for these, as it is lighter in color, texture and taste)
1 1/4 cup Almond Meal (made with blanched almonds).
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup Organic Cane Sugar or Sucanat (Sucanat is fine for these, but it is darker in color, which will make a darker colored cookie.  I used organic unbleached Cane Sugar).
1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Pure Almond Extract
1 Egg

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, mix and stir together the dry ingredients (first 3 ingredients).
3. In another bowl, mix together remaining ingredients, and beat well with a mixer.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
5. Mix well using a large wooden spoon until it clings together as is thoroughly mixed.
6. If  your butter was "very" soft, you will want to refrigerate the dough 30- 60 minutes to make it firm enough to roll out
7. Roll out onto a floured surface, I rolled them out about 1/4 inch in thickness.
8. Cut out and place onto a cookie sheet.  I use parchment paper on my cookie sheet, but if you don't have parchment paper, you can lightly grease or spray with cooking spray.
9. Bake 8-11 minutes, or until just beginning to brown.
10. Cool and frost as desired.

Note: I have made these with Barley Flour in place of Whole Wheat at times, and it is delicious variation that gives you a break from the Wheat if you need it.  I find that the Barley Flour is an even whiter flour, and gives a nice light colored cookie as well.

Icing

Ingredients:

1 cup organic powdered sugar

1 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

1 teaspoons Pure Almond Extract 

1 -2  Tablespoons cream or milk

Instructions:

1. Put powdered sugar and extracts into a medium sized bowl.
2. Add Cream a little at a time until you have a loose, but not too runny consistency.
3. Spoon onto cookies and spread evenly.

Natural Strawberry Icing

Ingredients:

3/4 cups Powdered Sugar

1/4 cup Dried Powdered Strawberries

1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

1-2 Tablespoons Milk or Cream 

Instructions:

1. Put powdered sugar, Powdered Strawberry and Vanilla Extract into a medium sized bowl.
2. Add Cream a little at a time until you have a loose, but not too runny consistency.
3. Spoon or Dip onto cookies and spread evenly.

Note: You could also use strawberry juice in place of the cream and replace the 1/4  cup dried strawberry powder with another 1/4 cup powdered sugar.  This would produce a pretty pink icing as well…it would probably come out even a little pinker, as the dried strawberries in this powder take on a slightly brownish effect, which is common with dried fruits.