VALENTINES CHOCOLATE LATTICE SUGAR COOKIES

We make sugar cookies a lot- they're an easy holiday treat and the kids love to decorate them. This year I opted for a more "grown up" version for Valentines Day. They're easy but still festive and they don't have all the food coloring and 2 lbs of sprinkles my kids would insist on. {Hence the reason why I made them when they weren't at home! Ha!}

I love the chocolate lattice hearts on top too! I saw this idea on Pinterest but I didn't pin it, so I'm sorry for the lack of reference. Thank you sweet person who inspired this idea!

I did use Nellie's Super Soft Sugar Cookie recipe she posted a few months ago. Mmmm! These are SO good. I love the addition of sour cream and how it adds to the light texture of these cookies!

Super Soft Sugar Cookies

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. soda
• 2 cups flour

Cream together sugar and butter. Add egg and vanilla. In separate bowl, combine sour cream, salt and soda. Add flour and sour cream to butter mixture, beat until smooth. Chill dough for several hours.

Roll and cut with shaped cutters. I like to roll the dough to about 1/3 of an inch thick. The dough is sticky, so you'll use a good amount of flour to cut your shapes. I like to stick the cookie cutter in the tub of flour between cutting each shape. 

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Make sure not to over-bake your cookies. They may not even look totally done on the tops, but if the bottoms start to brown, I take mine out and they are perfect!

While the cookies are baking and cooling, you can make the frosting...

Sugar Cookie Frosting

• 1/2 cup soft butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tsp. vanilla

Beat butter until smooth. Beat in remaining ingredients until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add additional milk a little at a time if thinner consistency is desired.

As well as the chocolate lattice hearts...

First, stick a dinner plate or a cookie sheet in the freezer. Sounds odd, I know, just trust me on this one. 

Put 1/4- 1/2 cup of chocolate chips in a small ziplock bag. Microwave for 1 minute, turn over, then microwave in 30 second increments until chips are melted and chocolate can be easily squished around the bag. {mine took 2 thirty-second increments, so an additional minute.}

Lay out a square of wax paper. Cut a very small corner off the bag and draw a heart on the wax paper about the size of your cookie cutters. Next, fill in the hearts criss-crossing lines and such. There was no method to my madness, I just sort of went crazy. When your wax paper is full, take the pan or plate from the freezer and slide the wax paper on top of it. You'll noticed the chocolate begin to harden immediately. At that point I set the plate out in my garage, where it was about 40 degrees. If you're in one of those awesome climates where it's 70 degrees in January-February, then you should place the plate in your fridge or freezer. 

After a few minutes, when the chocolate is solid, take it out and just let it sit on the counter top. 

When the cookies have cooled, frost them, then place a chocolate heart on top. I also dabbed a cinnamon jelly heart in a tiny bit of frosting and added those to the center.  

ENJOY!