Valentine’s Day has always been that one holiday that I’ve been envious of while strolling through aisles at the store. I’ve never been a fan of milk or dark chocolate, and that is all you can seem to find around this time of year. Knowing my love of celebrating everything, I tend to feel a little left out between the Godiva chocolates, wrapped in cute little boxes to the chocolate-covered strawberries paired with the crispest champagne. While my husband found a way early on in our relationship to replace Valentine’s Day chocolate, I still want to be part of the fun!

A few weeks ago, I was perusing Pinterest looking for a non-chocolate sweet dessert to take to a Galentine’s Day Party that I was attending with a few friends when these Dipped Strawberry Wafers inserted their way into my life. They are super simple, require only three ingredients– Almond Bark, Strawberry Wafers, and Sprinkles — and are done, start to finish in under 30 minutes. There is nothing not to love about these! I saw a few variations on how to make these, but I decided to keep them simple, using the same almond bark that I used for covered pretzels around the holidays.

Dipped Strawberry Wafers:

Ingredients:

• Strawberry Wafers (I used the sugar-free ones so they weren’t overly sweet!)
• Almond Bark or Candy Melts
• Sprinkles

Here are step-by-step instructions for these easy and festive treats:

1. Lay wax paper out on your workspace to let the dipped wafers harden on.
2. Melt Almond Bark according to package instructions.
3. Dip or drizzle melted candy over one end of the wafer. (Tip: As the candy hardens, the wafers can break, so I found drizzling the melted bark over the wafer was easier!)
4. Sprinkle the sprinkles (if desired) over the dipped end of the wafer and place on wax paper to harden. If you are in a time crunch, you can also let the candy harden by placing the dipped wafers in the refrigerator or freezer!

Another recipe worth noting is Classic Frosted Cut-Out Sugar Cookies. My family has used this recipe for our Christmas Cut-Out cookies for years. One batch of the cookies takes under an hour from mixing to cooled. Once they cool, you are ready to frost them! I chose to just decorate with sprinkle this time, but I have written Conversation Heart messages on them before!

Frosted Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 3 cup flour

Here are step-by-step instructions for the Cutout Sugar Cookies:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter, and sugar with an electric mixer.
2. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add baking powder and flour; one cup at a time. The dough will be very stiff; blend last flour in by hand. Do not chill the dough.
3. On a floured surface, roll the ball of dough (I typically divide into smaller, more manageable balls) into a circle approximately 1/8 inch thick. Dip cookie cutters in flour before each use and press cutter into the dough.
4. Bake cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet for 6-7 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Let cool before frosting.