Valentine’s Day Cookie Recipe

To start, you’ll need a heart-shaped cookie cutter, rolling pin and baking sheet.

Ingredients:
Serves: 32 cookies

• 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour, plus more for work surface
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• ½ tsp ground allspice
• ¾ tsp salt
• ½ cup unsulphured blackstrap molasses
• ½ cup applesauce
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp natural vanilla extract
• Heart sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, combine molasses, applesauce, egg and vanilla. Beat together until smooth.
4. In parts, stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture until it becomes thick dough.
5. Coat a flat surface with flour and roll the dough until it’s roughly ¼ inch thick. Cut using a heart-shaped cookie cutter and place onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Decorate with sprinkles (optional).
6. Bake for 9–11 minutes. Enjoy with your valentine!

This recipe uses blackstrap molasses which contains significant amounts of vitamin B6 and minerals, including calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese. Studies have shown that vitamin B6 is often used to treat memory loss, diabetes, asthma attacks, kidney stones, lung cancer and acne.