Impress your Valentine with Raspberry and Almond Shortbread Cookies

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I found this wonderful shortbread cookie recipe on allrecipes.com a while ago and just love it. I think they make for a special valentine treat as well, so I thought I'd share it with you all ... if only these cookies went as planned! {Read on to discover why I should have just stayed out of the kitchen today!}

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

 Icing:

• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 teaspoon milk

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

In a medium bowl, cream together butter and white sugar until smooth. Mix in 1/2 teaspoon almond extract.

Mix in flour just until dough comes together. You don't want the dough to be crumbly, so if you add too much flour, add a bit more butter to compensate.

Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls, and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Make a small hole in the center of each ball. I know these are "thumbprint cookies, and you're technically supposed to use your thumb, but I prefer to use the back of a 1/8th teaspoon measuring spoon instead. Fill the hole with preserves.

{I pulled an unmarked container of homemade cherry jam from the freezer and used this... somehow not noticing the consistency was a little different than last time...}

Don't they look beautiful?! They'll be perfect to take over to our family activity tonight!

Bake for 14 to 18 minutes in preheated oven, or until lightly browned. Let cool 1 minute on the cookie sheet.

{Here are the rest of the directions: In a medium bowl, mix together the confectioners' sugar, 3/4 teaspoon almond extract, and milk until smooth. Drizzle lightly over warm cookies.}

It's about this time where I start to think...wait a second- these don't look right...

The jam is usually shiny, not dry looking.

This is me laughing at myself after I tasted my concoction and realized I filled these gorgeous cookies...with, ahh, yes, leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving.

Sigh.

I didn't take a picture of me scouring my pantry for anything that could help. But that's what I did. I had no time to make another batch! Kids will be up from naps and home from school soon! Thank heavens for the .22 bags of Hershey Kisses I still had on hand!

These are my cookies after I scraped the cranberry sauce out and replaced them with Hershey Kisses.

Oh, and this is the almond bark melted with a couple drops of red coloring I was hoping would hide my mistake...

And this is the end result...

Not too bad, eh? Moral of the story: taste unmarked containers of red-gelatinous substances prior to baking them onto cookies.

I promise the real cookies are far less time consuming and humerous than this batch was. Try them! Or if you'd like to make the alternative, they actually taste pretty good too!