Chocolate-dipped strawberries
Delicious chocolate-covered strawberries are a great way to set the tone for a romantic rendezvous with your beloved. And you’d be surprised at how easy it is to make this divine treat. Here goes…

1 pound (18-20) Fresh strawberries

6 ounces dark, bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
3 ounces white chocolate

• Wash and completely dry strawberries.
• Line a cookie tray with parchment paper or waxed paper.
• Heat the dark chocolate on stove top using the double boiler method. (Place the dark chocolate in a heat-resistant bowl. Fill a saucepan with water to a medium level and allow it to boil on medium heat. Then, hold the chocolate bowl over it and let the heat from the hot water melt the chocolate. Stir and smoothen the chocolate this way.)
• You could also melt chocolate in a microwave by heating it on HIGH for a minute or two, stir it again and then heat again till chocolate is melted.
• Then hold the strawberries by the stem and dip it in the chocolate. Or you could pierce the strawberry with a fork and dunk it into the chocolate.
• Once the strawberry is completely covered, place it on the parchment paper and allow it to cool. It should harden in a few minutes.
• Garnish: Use melted white chocolate to decorate the strawberries by drizzling white chocolate over each strawberry in a zigzag design. Or once the dark chocolate hardens, you can dip the tips of the strawberry into the white chocolate for a different design. Some even dip half a strawberry in white chocolate and the other half in dark chocolate (if you choose to do so, make sure you have equal amounts of white and dark chocolate).
• Set aside to cool.

Heart-shaped cookies are the easiest thing to make for Valentine’s. Let your imagination run wild as you make these delights.

1 ½ cup All purpose flour
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
6 tbsp butter (softened to room temperature)
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Heart-shaped cookie cutter

Optional: You can use candy or rose coloured frosting to design the cookies. Alternatively, you can melt chocolate and dip the cookies on one side to have chocolate-covered cookies! And yet another option is to get icing (available in easy to use cones in a baking store) to write messages on the cookies.

Method:

• Set the oven to preheat at 350 degrees F.
• With a blender, cream the butter and sugar till it becomes very pale in colour and the texture feels thicker.
• Add egg and vanilla slowly into the same bowl and mix well.
• Mix flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl. Use a fork to mix all three well.
• Pour the flour mix into the liquid mix and combine slowly. Make sure you have mixed it well in slow, easy motions. It will start turning into dough. (The dough should be soft and not too sticky. If it’s too watery, add very little flour because the more flour you add, the dough will get tougher and difficult to roll out.)
• Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
• To roll out the dough, sprinkle flour on to your rolling board or onto a flat counter surface. Sprinkle a little flour on the dough too and then roll it out to a quarter inch thickness.
• Then using your heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut the dough. To make it easy to cut through the dough, dip the edges of your cookie cutter before you press it into the dough.
• Bake for approximately 10 minutes. If you’re using a smaller cookie size, it will bake faster so keep an eye on the cookies till they turn golden brown around the edges. (Don’t worry if they seem soft in the middle, they’ll harden a bit as they cool.)
• Cool the cookies on a rack and then decorate as you prefer with chocolate, icing or messages!