HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, sweethearts!

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day and that your sweeties (or family members or special friends) treated you right, and let you know how much you are loved! My dear BFF and roomie made me a Valentine's gift bag with a blu-ray of the The Social Network, a cd of my little bubby, Justin Bieber (ha ha), and some chocolates. I got her a mop. In my defense, it was a special mop...one of those steam cleaning thingamabobs...and she had been saying she wanted one for quite some time. And I also got her chocolates and a funny card with Sue Sylvester from "Glee" wishing her a Happy Valentine's Day. Tee hee.

For my work colleagues and friends, I baked some decadent chocolate chip cookies made in a cute Valentine's molded pan from Wilton. I tried out a new recipe over the weekend after hearing Ina Garten make mention of Tate's Bake Chop in the Hamptons. Apparently, people lose their minds over their thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies. I thought they were delicious, and interestingly, the recipe is practically identical to my very favorite Levain Bakery copycat, except for using less flour. The Tate's recipe calls for two cups of flour to one cup butter, while Levain uses three. When I made the heart-shaped cookies in the molded pan, I split the difference and used 2 1/2 cups so that they would hold their shape better and not spread. Then I packed them up in some cute little treat bags that I found at Wal-Mart (though they look more like Tar-ghay!), and distributed to them to all of my Valentines at work. Cute, huh?

Tate's Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Source: Food Network)
Yield: 3 dozen

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup salted butter, 2 sticks
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 2-3 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and salt.
In another large bowl, cream the butter and sugars, then add the water and vanilla. Mix until just combined. Add eggs to the butter mixture and mix them lightly. Stir in the flour mixture. When flour is mixed in, fold in the chocolate chips.

Using a cookie scoop, drop the cookie dough 2-inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets. Make sure the cookie sheets are well greased, or line them with parchment paper or a Silpat.

Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the edges and centers of the cookies are golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack.