Why not make something special for your diabetic Valentine this year? Go beyond the usual box of sugar-free chocolates and let your diabetic Valentine know how much you care. There's nothing wrong with the box of chocolates, we diabetics appreciate them. So I'm not recommending you skip the chocolates this year as I don't want to get you into trouble. Notice I said "go beyond," meaning including the chocolates plus giving a little something extra. I'll leave it up to you how to handle that one. Anyway, get out the ingredients, grab an apron and get set to impress your Valentine with this delicious recipe for a diabetic Valentine cookie! Your special someone is going to love you for it.

RASPBERRY-ALMOND VALENTINE HEART SANDWICH COOKIES

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar substitute

1 tbsp almond extract

1/4 cup egg substitute

1/4 cup water

3/4 tsp white vinegar

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup sugar-free raspberry preserves

3 tbsp sugar-free "powdered sugar"

In a medium mixing bowl, blend together butter, sugar substitute and almond extract until creamy. Add egg substitute, water and vinegar. Mix well. Add flours, salt and baking powder. Using an electric mixer on low speed, mix until dough is formed. Be sure to scrap sides and bottom of the bowl.

Remove the dough and place on a floured board or work surface. Divide dough into equal halves and round each into a 1-inch-thick flat disc. Wrap separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil an 18x12-inch baking pan or cookie sheet. Unwrap dough and roll out on floured board or work surface to a 1/8-inch thickness. Cut with large heart-shaped cookie cutters. Cut a small heart out of the center of 1/2 the cookies. (Bake small hearts separately and decorate with crushed sugar-free peppermint candies for another purpose.) Place cookies on the prepared pan and bake 8-10 minutes until lightly browned on bottom. Cool on a wire rack.

Spread preserves over the whole cookies. Sprinkle "powdered sugar" (see note below) over the cookies with hearts cutout. Place powdered cookies over the preserve cookies to make a sandwich cookie.

NOTE: To make sugar-free powdered sugar, I do the following:

Take 3/4 cup of Splenda Granular or Equal Sugar-Lite and put in blender. Add a couple tablespoons of cornstarch and blend until sugar substitute is ground to a very fine powder. Store in a zip-top plastic bag or an airtight container. Use as you would powdered-sugar on cakes, cookies or other pastries.

Variations: Use strawberry preserves instead of raspberry and vanilla extract instead of almond. For Christmas, crush a sugar-free candy cane and use to sprinkle a little on top of the "powdered sugar" and use whatever flavor of preserves you would like with the peppermint flavor of the crushed candies.

This is also a good cookie for your Valentine who is just trying to cut back on sugar, carbs and/or calories. A person doesn't have to be diabetic to appreciate this cookie.