Whole Wheat Beet Colored Valentine Cookies

              

                

So this post isn't really going to be a "how to" recipe. I wasn't at my house and it was a bit chaotic with a bunch of kids and family around and I didn't take all the pictures I wanted... but I promised my 4 year old, Liam that we'd make our traditional valentines cookies and here are some pics on our experience.

I had a few beets on hand and just bought a new bag of whole wheat pastry flour so I thought we'd take a natural approach this year and use the beet for coloring and not use some unprocessed bleached flour. This took WAY longer than I wanted it to.  I don't know if I have the paitece to sift, then cream the sugar and butter every time I bake but the fact that I was using some natural ingredients gave me all the excitement I needed to finish the job. The cookies turned out so soft and yummy. They had a slight wheat flavor but it was way more mild that any red wheat flour. The frosting was whipped and gave a nice touch of sweetness.

How to use the beets for coloring: 

I used 2 beats, chopped and boiled them till soft about 20 min. All you really need is half of 1 beet to get the few drops of color needed for your frosting and even that is more than enough. 

The water will turn red pretty fast. Once you make your frosting add 3-4 drops of the beet liquid adding more to darken the color. I did find that if I added more than 4 drops the frosting became gloopy and started to seperate so don't know if it possible to get a dark red color. 

I also added 2drops to a few spoonfuls of natural raw sugar. You have to mix it till it turns color, then leave it out to dry and crystallize. Once it's absorbed moisture you can crumble it on top of the buttercream frosting. 

Soft Whole Wheat Sugar Cookie:

3 1/4 c. Bobs Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

1 t. Baking Soda

1/2 t. Salt

1/2 c. Soft Butter

1 c. Sugar

1 Egg

1 1/2 t. Vanilla

1/2 c. Sour cream

Stir together flour, soda, and salt. Set aside Cream together butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. Add sour cream and half of flour mixture. Mix one minute. Stir in remaining flour mixture. Roll dough on lightly floured surface to 1/2 inch thick. Cut with valentine cookie cutter. Bake 8-10 min on greased cookie sheet at 400 degrees.  

Beet Butter Cream Frosting:

1/2 c. Softened butter 

1/3 cup of almond milk

4 1/2 Natural raw sugar 

1 tsp Vanilla or almond extract

1tsp beet liquid 

Enjoy!

Happy Valentines Day XOXO, Lily