Gluten Free Heart Shaker Cookies

Dough
2 cups gluten free flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp powdered sugar
8 tbsp softened butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp rose flavoring (optional)

Window
Isomalt
Sprinkles

Royal Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp water
2 tsp meringue powder

Preheat oven to 350˚F and prep a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together butter and granulated sugar until smooth. Add egg, vanilla, and rose and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, and powdered sugar . Add flour mixture to your stand mixer bowl and mix until everything comes together and forms a thick dough. If using food coloring, you can add this now.

Roll out dough onto a sheet of parchment paper. If needed, sprinkle a little cornstarch on the paper and rolling pin if the dough starts to stick (it shouldn’t though). Cut out large heart and move to cookie sheet. While on cookie sheet, cut out smaller heart in the center and carefully remove dough. This prevents the shape from warping after the hole is cut out.

Each cookie needs 3 cut out hearts to make a complete shaker sandwich.
Cookie with window - cookie with sprinkles - cookie with window

Bake for 7-8 minutes. Reduce cooking time if the edges start to darken. Let cool for 2 minutes on cookies sheet before carefully transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

When cookies have cooled, prepare to fill with isomalt.

Lay out a large sheet of aluminum foil (you can also use a silicone baking mat). Try to get the foil as smooth as possible, as any ripples or creases will be reflected in your isomalt glass.

Place heart cookies on foil, face up. For every two cookies, leave out one.

In a large pot on the stovetop, measure out 1 part water and 4 parts isomalt. For this amount of cookies, I do 2 cups isomalt and 1/2 cup water. Heat on medium-high until the isomalt mixture begins to simmer (no need to stir at any point). Cover with lid for 4 minutes. Remove lid and let boil until mixture reaches 320˚F.

Remember, you are candy-making, so this is VERY HOT and can really injure you if this spills on you. Please be cautious.

Remove the pot from heat and very and slowly pour melted isomalt into each cookie center. The mixture will still be bubbling, but that's okay. The bubbles will pop as the mixture cools.

If the isomalt cools too quickly in the pot before you've finished filling cookies, you can just reheat it on the stove.

Wait at least an hour for the isomalt to set completely, then gently peel cookies off the foil. If you used a silicone mat, the isomalt might be foggy. Just flash it with a torch very quickly and it will clear up.

To make the royal icing, mix together 2 tbsp water and 2 tbsp meringue powder in a large bowl. Sift in powdered sugar and beat until smooth. If it's too stiff, add 1 tsp of water at a time until it reaches the right consistency. If too wet, add 1 tbsp of powdered sugar at a time.

Transfer royal icing to a pastry bag and pipe a thin line around the top facing side of the first heart layer (with window). Place one non-window heart on top. Fill the inside of the cookie with sprinkles, leaving a little room for them to move around. Pipe another thin layer on this cookie and top with another windowed heart cookie and let set for about 15 minutes to let the icing harden completely. Shake!

Happy Valentine's Day (almost)!

Did you ever make stained glass sugar cookies out of crushed candy? Shaker cookies are like two stained glass cookies sandwiches together with magic inside. It's lovely! Because love. Because Valentine's Day. You get it.

These look complicated at first, and it seems like a lot of steps. It's really not bad once you understand the pieces though. The dough is just sugar cookie dough that's been pretty-fied with dye and flavor, and the isomalt is just a sugar replacement. While you can use sugar, I prefer isomalt because it isn't as sticky and it's more structurally sound. Then you just layer and you have a cookie that is not only cute, but fun too!

Ok, I have to be super honest with you though. The isomalt window is thick and you can't really make it thinner, as far as I know. I don't recommend biting into it. This isn't a typical cookie so shouldn't be eaten in the typical way either. We'll go with that.

But these are perfect for ICE CREAM!