Cupid Cookies

2 cups butter

¾ cups powdered sugar

½ cup sugar

1½ tsp GF vanilla

4 cups flour or 4 cups America’s Test Kitchen GF flour blend + 1 tsp xanthan gum or 2 cups Trader Joe’s GF flour + 2 cups Bob’s Red Mill GF flour + 1 tsp xanthan gum

¼ tsp salt

1 cup (8 oz) glace pineapple, chopped (you can also use candied pineapple)

 Beat butter until fluffy, beat in powdered sugar, sugar, & vanilla.

Whisk together flour, xanthan gum & salt. Gradually mix into butter mixture.

Mix in pineapple. Cover & chill about 3 hours (for regular flour). If you are using GF flour, usually 30 minutes – 1 hour is enough. The dough can get pretty stiff, just leave it out for a bit until it softens up. Or gently squish it with your hands until it is a workable consistency.

Roll dough on floured surface to ¼ inch (or so) thick. Cut into heart shape.

Bake on ungreased or parchment covered baking sheet at 325° for 10-15 minutes (until edges just brown). Cool on pan for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to finish cooling.

 2 cups (12 oz) chocolate chips

¼ cake paraffin

Melt chocolate chips & paraffin (double boiler is best, but heavy saucepan or in the microwave works too). Dip ½ of each cookie, place on wax paper until chocolate is firm. Or just place back on parchment paper covered baking sheets. I gently run my finger around the edge of the cookie before I dip it in the chocolate. This will knock off the little crumbs on the edges – which can get into your chocolate. Because as you dip the cookies, you may notice little crumbs sticking to the coating. This doesn’t hurt anything, but the chocolate won’t look as nice & smooth as you may want it to.

 Notes:

This is a big recipe, it makes about 6 dozen or so (depending on size). But it is pretty easy to cut in half, if that works better for you. But I don’t recommend cutting the dipping chocolate in half. Because when you go to dip your cookies, you will only get about half of them done & there won’t be enough chocolate to be able to dip half of the cookie. The good news is – you can use the left over chocolate! You can dip GF pretzels or graham crackers, or you can put it in mini muffin cups to make little chocolate candies. I like to crush up a few candy canes & stir them into the chocolate. Or you can decorate the tops with pieces of candy canes or nuts or whatever you feel like goes with chocolate. And, lets be honest, there isn’t much that doesn’t go with chocolate!

 I usually use whatever GF flour I’ve used in the recipe to spread on the board when I roll them out. But be aware that if you use Bob’s Red Mill GF flour, you may be able to taste it after the cookie is baked. I would recommend using Trader Joe’s GF flour or ATK GF flour blend, or even white rice flour.

 Although I usually make this recipe at Christmas time, I think my mom found the recipe in a magazine around Valentine’s Day – hence, the name & the shape! If you don’t have a heart-shaped cookie cutter, you can use a circle, or any other shape(s) you may have. They cookie cutter should be about 2½ - 3½ inches across.

 These cookies do not freeze very well. They get very hard, especially the pineapple! And sometimes the chocolate gets a little white. They keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for quite awhile.