COFFEE CHAT & SPIRIT CAKE!

Sweet Hearts
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What you need:

• 1/2 cup of maraschino cherries, well-drained and chopped
• 1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
• 3  tablespoons of sugar
• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup of finely chopped almonds
• 1/4 cup of semisweet chocolate pieces ( you can use chocolate chips here)
• 1/2 teaspoon of shortening

What you do:

1. Dry the cherries gently using a paper towel. Place then in a small bowl and set aside.  In a medium bowl stir together flour and sugar.  Cut in butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs or small peas.  Stir in the chopped cherries.  Knead well on a lightly floured board until all the ingredients are well combined and the dough is smooth.
2. On the lightly floured board, roll out the dough to a 1/2 inch thickness.   Using a 1 1/2 inch heart shaped cookie cutter ( dipped in flour before each cut), cut the dough into hearts.  Place each cookie one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in a 325 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until the cookies are set to the touch.  Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.
3. Evenly spread almonds on waxed paper.  In a small saucepan or pot heat the chocolate and shortening on low heat just until melted, stirring occasionally.  Using a pastry brush, brush the bottoms of the cookies with the chocolate.  Press cookies with chocolate sides down into almonds.  Place cookies with chocolate-almond sides up on a wire rack.  Let stand until the chocolate is set.
   
   Makes about 18 cookies