NOTE: Not part of the A through Z cookie effort.

These heart cutouts were a sugar cookie with some orange zest. Some were decorated with tempered semi-sweet chocolate and others with an icing glace. I really enjoyed the ones with the icing! When these cookies first cooled, they were super hard. So hard that you would be worried about breaking your teeth. Some people may have thrown them away right there for fear of hurting their loved ones…but I decided to icing them and see if they softened up. And soften they did! I have made these cookies a few times now and it’s always the same: super hard the first 2 days and then they soften up and are quite tasty.

Recipe from The Cookie and Biscuit Bible by Catherine Atkinson.

3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
grated rind of orange (or lemon)
pinch of salt
2 2/3 cups of flour

Pre heat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter until soft. Gradually add sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy. Gradually stir in egg and egg yolk. Add vanilla, rind and salt. Stir to mix well.
Sift flour over the mixture and stir to blend. Gather dough into a ball, wrap in clear plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
On lightly-floured surface, roll out the dough until 1/8 in thick.
Stamp out shapes or rounds with floured cookie cutters and place on a non-stick baking sheet.
Bake for about 8 minutes or until lightly colored.

For the decorating glace (covers 24 cookies):
1 cup icing sugar
a few drops of vanilla
1 tbsp of hot water
food coloring

I typically end up adding another tablespoon of water to the glace as the recipe as is comes out a bit thick.