Chocolate and White Chocolate Ganache to Decorate Valentines Day Cookies

Sweets for the Sweet.

I always decorate homemade cookies for Valentines Day.  I am really not too keen on all of these holidays that used to be simple and sweet but are all about more and more and more spending.  I can hardly watch the evening news without a bombardment of advertisements from pajama grams to sex aides?  Good grief.  Well, I am not changing my ways.

I do try to put a new spin on my cookies though and this time I am using ganache to do the final decorations.  I just finished them up and I have them cooling under the ceiling fan in the kitchen!


Ingredients for Ganache:

Making ganache.

1/2 C. heavy cream
2 C. chocolate chips

Place a glass bowl over a simmering pan of hot water.  Do not let the bottom of the bowl touch the water.  Pour in the chocolate chips and stir until melted and smooth.

It is very common to add flavorings to the chocolate.  I have added a teaspoon of instant coffee granules to chocolate and also 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract to white chocolate and just stir in.  If you want to add a bit of additional sweetness you can also stir in a tablespoon of white corn syrup.

Keep the heat turned to the lowest setting and hold until ready to use.  Stir occasionally.

Cookie Paint and Cutters.

I have made painted sugar cookies and chocolate wafer cookies and will spoon the chocolate over the cookies or dip the cookies in the warm ganache and then place them on parchment paper to cool.

Painted hearts with red sprinkles.

Here is the link to make cut out sugar cookies and the cookie paint.     thehiddenpantry.blogspot.com/2013/02/painted-hearts-cut-out-cookies-for.html

Assorted hearts.

Here is the link for the chocolate wafer cookies.      thehiddenpantry.blogspot.com/2013/09/easy-slice-and-bake-chocolate-wafer.html

Cooling chocolate wafers.

After cooling the cookies and making the ganache I tried sever things.  Some were better than others but none were bad.

Drizzle stripes with a spoon.

Dip assorted cookies.

Roll edge of dipped wafers in Swedish sugar.

Drizzle wafers with almond flavored chocolate.

In the morning when these are all hardened I will package them up.  I think these will make a nice assortment and they are a little different from the previous years!