Valentine Butter Cookie Pops

These are the cookie pops I made for my son's school friends on this Valentines Day!! He and his friends just loved it and have ordered some more....Got the recipe for the butter cookies from  http://www.joyofbaking.com/ButterCookies.html  and made some changes in the basic recipe. If you are a butter cookie lover, you have got to taste these cookies!!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 to 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon nutmeg powder
Red colored decorating sugar
20 Wilton 8-inch lollipop sticks

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

With a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in the bowl on a medium speed. Afterwards, beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Gradually add the flour to the creamed mixture and beat just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. The dough is not very firm; if it is still very loose you can add the flour to make it to the right consistency. Don't make the dough to firm. Put the dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for about 1/2 an hour. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut out the heart cookies with a cookie cutter ( I used the around 2.5-3 inches cookie cutter). The cookies have to be a bit thicker as the lollipop stick needs to be inserted into it.

Place the cookies on the baking sheet in an opposite direction, spacing about 2 inches apart (Around 6 cookies will fit on a baking sheet). Then slowly insert the lollipop sticks at the base of the cookies and roll them upwards till you reach around 1/2 the cookie. While doing this apply firm pressure by one hand on the cookie area where you are inserting the stick to avoid breaking the cookie. Decorate the cookie with the red decorating sugar by sprinkling it over the cookies in the manner you like. Bake the cookies for about 10-15 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. The more you bake the more crisp the cookies will come out, but be sure not to burn them!!