Decorating Valentine Cookies with Chocolate

Heart-shaped cookies are fun and popular for Valentine’s Day, and decorating with chocolate is so simple, it can even be done with kids. Chocolate is a traditional option for Valentine’s Day, we love using it to pipe borders or frost the tops of cookies. It’s also a wonderful flavor to pair with raspberry preserves.

White Chocolate Instead of Royal Icing

White chocolate makes a terrific substitute for royal icing, it’s less sweet and much more flavorful. Just melt in the Proofer and spread over cookies to frost them. For a crisp texture with shine and snap, temper the chocolate after melting by stirring in a little seed chocolate while it cools.

Melt and Temper White or Dark Chocolate:

To melt chocolate, break into pieces and place about three-quarters of the pieces in a bowl. Reserve the remainder to use as “seed” chocolate. Set up the Proofer without water in the tray and set the thermostat to 115F. Place the bowl of chocolate in the Proofer and allow to melt slowly and safely while rolling and baking cookies or doing other activities. Four ounces (113g) of chocolate will melt in 60 minutes or less, larger quantities will take longer.

To temper the chocolate, remove it from the Proofer and add the reserved seed chocolate. Stir gently and continuously until the chocolate reaches a working temperature of 90F. If piping with the chocolate, fit a bag with a very small tip and place in a mug or glass tall enough to support the bag. Be sure the tip is folded to the side so that the chocolate doesn’t leak out. Pour the tempered chocolate into the bag and close it.

To hold the chocolate, lower the Proofer setting to 90F. Set the tempered chocolate in the Proofer to maintain its temperature. The Proofer’s accurate temperature control means that you can take your time frosting and piping the decorations.

Elegant Swirls are Simple to Make

To make elegant, professional-looking swirls on cookies, simply frost with white chocolate, then quickly (before it sets) place three dots of chocolate on top of the white chocolate. Use a thin knife to connect the dots, starting just before the first dot and extending the line past the last dot to form the swirl. Keep the knife in the Proofer between cookies so that it doesn’t cool the chocolate.

Read more about how to temper chocolate.