How to Make Real Saint Valentine’s Day Cookies
Skip the random commercially-produced cheap Valentine’s Day junk food this year and remember the three saints behind the Catholic feast day by baking these real Catholic cookies.
You’ve seen the bumper stickers that say, “Put the MASS back in Christmas” (either have I, but we’ll get right to work printing it up).
We Catholics need to start putting the SAINT back in St. Valentine’s Day.
After all, it’s our holiday, not Hallmark’s.
One of the three saint Valentines that are commemorated on the February 14th feast was a patron of lovers, but all three were martyrs.
Just try not to think about that too much as you’re mixing up your red dye food coloring.
In spite of the triple dedication, the Feast of St. Valentine is popularly associated with Saint Valentine the priest. He is venerated in the Church as a patron of lovers.
As the story goes, Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than men with wives and families and outlawed marriage for young men. Father Valentine defied the injustice of this decree by continuing to marry young lovers in secret. When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius of course ordered that he be put to death.
There are also some natural explanations for why the day itself became associated with love and courtship.
Some say the tradition stems from an old legend that birds began to mate on this day, as shown by the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer in his poem “The Parliament of Fowls”¹:
“Seynt Valentines Day,
When every foul commeth to choos hys mayt”
Weirdly, Lupercalia² was an ancient pagan festival held each year in Rome on February 15. Lupercalia was a bloody, violent, and sexually-charged celebration featuring—as one does—animal sacrifice, random matchmaking, and coupling with the intention of warding off evil spirits and infertility.
Although we don’t have direct evidence, the Church probably placed the celebration of the three martyrs and of the patron saint of love and marriage will full awareness of the pagan history. That move—called inculturation—is typical in Church history.
Onto the cookies.
One of my goals on The Saintmaker Blog is to help you rediscover the customs of your ancestors. This year, let’s revive old-fashioned heart-shaped cookies! They’re cheerful, beautiful, and easier to make than you’d imagine.
I’m still learning to love baking, so this recipe was a revelation.
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Sign up for our FREE 7-Day Conscience Cleanse Challenge, and experience the power of THREE mystical routines for examining your conscience passed down from the Catholic saints!
traditional st. valentine’s day cookies
I learned this spectacular recipe from Feast Day Cookbook by Katherine Burton and Helmut Ripperger³, which I highly recommend you buy for your Catholic kitchen library.
Ingredients
2 ½ cups brown sugar
1 ½ cups cream
1 cup molasses
1 tablespoon ginger
½ grated lemon rind
8 cups flour
3 teaspoons soda
Instructions
Beat the sugar into the cream until it is thickened but not stiff ; then add the molasses, ginger, and lemon rind and mix thoroughly. Sift the flour with the soda and add this to the first mixture. Knead until smooth and chill several hours, or better still, overnight. Roll out dough ⅛ inch thick, cut into heart shapes and bake at 275° F for 15 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from sheet.
“But how do I decorate my cookies?” I hear you asking. I did a little digging. At this point, head over to sweetambs.com for the article “How to Decorate Simple Valentine’s Day Cookies with Royal Icing” by Amber Spiegel.
Amber is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and the author of Cookie Art: Sweet Designs for Special Occasions. Amber has over 12 years of cookie decorating experience and has traveled the world teaching others how to decorate beautiful cookies on their own.
She’s your woman online when it comes to decorating.
7 days to SPIRITUAL FREEDOM
Sign up for our FREE 7-Day Conscience Cleanse Challenge, and experience the power of THREE mystical routines for examining your conscience passed down from the Catholic saints!
cookie evangelism
When you’re done, share the love.
On the day of, practice “cookie evangelism” by dropping some cookies into small gift boxes (search “ValBox Treat Boxes” on Amazon) lined with red tissue paper and paper doilies, and delivering them to friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors.
Be sure to wish the person a happy SAINT Valentine’s Day, and use the intro to this post to “be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (Peter 3:15).
For extra Catholic credit, add a Saint Valentine prayer card and a personalized “Valentine” note to a loved one.
And there you have it. Cookie evangelization.
Wasn’t it St. Francis who said, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary use something other than cookies”?
Yes. Definitely. Not fake news.
Saint Valentine, patron saint of lovers and of marriage, pray for us.
7 DAYS to Spiritual Freedom
Sign up for our FREE 7-Day Conscience Cleanse Challenge, and experience the power of THREE mystical routines for examining your conscience passed down from the Catholic saints!
SOURCES
¹ Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Parliament of Fowls.” Librarius. http://www.librarius.com/parliamentfs.htm.
² “Lupercalia.” History. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/lupercalia#:~:text=Lupercalia%20was%20an%20ancient%20pagan,actually%20an%20offshoot%20of%20Lupercalia.
³ Burton, Katherine, and Helmut Ripperger. “Feast Day Cookbook; The Traditional Catholic Feast Day Dishes of Many Lands.” 1951. Catholic Authors Press, 2005. p. 36
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