Valentine's Treats

Over the weekend, I was finally able to get back in the kitchen and do some fun baking! Being that Valentine's Day is this week I wanted to make a couple treats for the one's I love most...Adam and our 2 dogs! :) I made the dogs' some yummy Cherry Crunchies, which they seemed to love! For Adam (and me too <3) I made a couple; Chocolate Heart Peanut Butter Cookies and Red Velvet Gooey Butter Cookies! Yummy! Now, I know neither of these should be on our diet plan while training for a marathon, but I couldn't resist! Besides, I ran 45 miles last week and will run even more this week...I can eat a few extra calories, right?! :)

The recipe for the dogs treats' is so easy and doesn't take too much time either. Plus, your favorite furry friends will love you for these! After their jog with us yesterday afternoon, they were very excited to have a new delicious treat as a reward!

"Puppy Love" Cherry Crunchies
From: Rachael Ray Magazine


Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup dry milk powder
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
1 egg beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, stir together all of the ingredients and 2/3 cup of water, adding more water as needed if the dough is too stiff.
2. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough 1/4 inch thick. Using a 1 inch cookie cutter (I used a heart shaped for the occasion!), cut out the dough and transfer to a greased cookie sheet. Gather and combine all the scraps, roll and form more cookies; repeat until all of the dough is used. Bake until crisp, 25-30 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool.

On to the Chocolate Heart Peanut Butter Cookies. These are the traditional Chocolate Kisses Peanut Butter Cookies only the kisses are replaced with Dove chocolate hearts! They turned out so cute!

Chocolate Heart Peanut Butter Cookies
From BettyCrocker.com

Ingredients:
1 pouch (1lb 1.5oz) Betty Crocker peanut butter cookie mix
3 tbsp vegetable oil ( I used light olive oil, as that's all I buy)
1 tbsp water
1 egg
2 tbsp sugar
36 heart shaped milk chocolate candies (I used Dove dark chocolate because that's our fave!)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, oil, water, and egg until dough forms.
2. Shape dough into 36 (1 inch) balls; roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown. Immediately press chocolate candy into top of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks. Cool completely, at least 20 minutes, before storing in air tight container.

I will share the other cookie recipe tomorrow on Valentine's Day! <3 Happy Baking!

~Erica