Valentine Heart Pops
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Martha Stewart Living, February 1997
- Yield Makes 32 pops (2 1/2 inches each)
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Ingredients
FOR THE CANDY CENTERS
- 1 cup light corn syrup
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon peppermint, cinnamon, or other flavored oil, optional
- Paste or gel food coloring, in pink tones
FOR THE COOKIES
- 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 32 white lollipop sticks (6 inches long)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Directions
- In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
- In bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on medium until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla until incorporated.
- Gradually add flour mixture on low until combined. Wrap dough in plastic; chill 1 hour.
- Heat oven to 325 degrees. On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/16 inch thick. Cut out 2 1/2-inch rounds. Use smaller cutters to cut hearts from rounds. (If desired, save and bake heart cutouts.) Transfer 8 cookies to an ungreased cookie sheet. Press 1 lollipop stick under each cookie. Place small hearts on same cookie sheet. Chill until firm, 15 to 30 minutes. Bake 8 to 12 minutes, until firm but not browned. Transfer cookies on pan to wire rack to cool, about 20 minutes. Repeat until all dough is used. Leave cooled heart pops on ungreased cookie sheet. Set aside.
- Combine 1/2 cup corn syrup, 1 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup water in heavy 2-quart saucepan. Stir over medium heat, until sugar has dissolved. Increase heat to medium high; boil until mixture reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer, 25 to 35 minutes.
- Remove from heat, and stir in flavored oil. Quickly pour mixture into 2 small heatproof bowls. Add food coloring to each; stir to combine. Pour into each empty heart. Make candy mixture again as in Step 5 with remaining ingredients and 1/2 cup water. Fill remaining cookies. Let set until hard, 10 to 20 minutes. Transfer in single layers to airtight containers. If humid, refrigerate.
so I made them and it was very sticky and I would def go with putting crushed candy in the center it works way better. and my cookies werent hard so maybe they got a little overbaked.
i jst made the cookies. they look good, but they're really hard. are they supposed to be like that? perhaps i overbaked them? also, the candy part was really tricky. perhaps the candy melt would be easier?
Ive done christmas cookies like this, but all i did was use crushed hard candy for the centers. It melts in the oven when you bake the cookies
for cleaning out the pots and bowls with the hard candy in it just fill it up with water and put it back on the stove until it boils then pour it out Immediately. That should make it really easy to clean.
awesome i want to try
These are really cute, but the candy centers are a little messy to clean up (the bowls and pans). It helped to soak with a strong dish soap for 30 minutes to an hour. But they came out adorable!