These heart shaped cookies resembling conversation heart candies are a perfect choice for Valentine’s Day baking. The sugar cookie dough is simple to make and holds its shape in the oven. And the best part – you don’t need advanced baking or decorating skills to make these adorable cookies.
If you’re love language includes making homemade treats for everyone close to you, include a batch of these Valentine pretzel treats or Valentine’s Day Chocolate Bark along with these heart shaped sugar cookies. Your thoughtful gesture won’t go unnoticed.
Although I don’t have the steadiest or most discerning hand for cookie decorating (my talents lie elsewhere), fortunately, creating these adorable heart-shaped cookies is incredibly easy. I’m also someone who enjoys watching endless hours of intricate cookie decorating videos, thinking to myself, “I can do this!” I guess two truths can coexist.
Throughout the years, I’ve participated in many conversations (with all of you) about the identical dilemmas…we all want these beautifully crafted cookies, yet lack the finesse and endurance to achieve it. This simple, but still charming cookie is dedicated to each one of you!
I personally love this sugar cookie recipe (when you find a good one, you hold on tight) to have at the ready for those times when cut-out cookies are on my agenda.
Why You’ll Love These Sugar Cookies for Valentine’s Day
- Cookies are sweet, sugary, soft, fun and taste just like Christmas sugar cookies.
- They’re great for kids who are enthusiastic kitchen helpers.
- You can’t go wrong with sugar cookies and frosting.
- These cookies are sturdy, but tender at the same time, so they want fall apart while decorating.
- The plain cookies (before decorating) freeze beautifully.
Time-Saving Tip: When I make cut-out sugar cookies for Christmas, I also bake cut-out cookies for future holidays, such as Valentine’s Day. I freeze the upcoming holiday cookies, then thaw and decorate them as needed. I find that one big baking day is a lot easier and saves me time during the next holiday rush.
Grab These Ingredients For Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies
- Butter: The butter is what gives this sugar cookie its richness, flavor, tenderness, while contributing moisture. And there is nothing better than a buttery tasting cut-out cookie.
- Granulated sugar: The sugar sweetens the cookies (obviously), but also contributes to their texture, creating the crisp edge, while keeping the cookies soft and chewy in the center.
- Egg: In sugar cookie baking, the egg acts as a binding agent, helping to hold the ingredients together and giving structure to the dough. It also adds moisture and richness to the cookies.
- All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour serves as the main dry ingredient in the recipe. It’s the structure and bulk necessary for the dough, helping to give the cookies their shape and texture.
- Baking powder and salt: Baking powder helps the cookies rise and gives them a slightly lighter texture. Salt enhances the flavor of the cookies and balances out the sweetness of the other ingredients.
- Vanilla frosting: Vanilla frosting is used as a topping for the sugar cookies. It adds sweetness, flavor, and visual appeal to the cookies, making them more attractive and delicious. You can absolutely make your own frosting or icing in any flavor you prefer, but since I wanted this to remain a simple recipe, we’re using canned.
- Red and pink food coloring: The red and pink food coloring are used to tint the vanilla frosting, giving it vibrant colors that coincide with Valentine’s Day. In the recipe card below, I linked to the exact food coloring I used in this recipe.
Note: This recipe make 40 heart shaped cookies when you use the same sized heart shaped cookie cutter. It’s a no-brainer, but you can easily make more or less cookies depending on the size of your cookie cutter, without having to double or cut down on the recipe.
Method: How To Make Heart Shaped Cookies
Make the Dough
- I like to make the cookie dough in my stand mixer bowl, by creaming together the softened butter and sugar. Once that is light and fluffy, I beat in the egg and vanilla. (You can also use a hand mixer for this recipe, it’s just so much easier to get the flour mixed in with a stand mixer.)
- I continue by adding the flour, baking powder, and salt to the bowl. Make sure you’re on low speed (so the flour does not fly out), increasing slowly until the dough is well combined. (The dough is going to feel soft and sticky at this point.)
- Chill the dough in the fridge (covered with saran wrap) for at least one hour (longer is okay).
Rolling Out the Sugar Cookie Dough
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ and line your cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- I like to flour the area I’m going to be rolling out my dough on. I roll out the dough about ¼ of an inch thick and cut out hearts with a heart shaped cookie cutter, placing each heart on my cookie sheets 1 to 2 inches apart; they do not spread much. (I used a 3.15″ heart shaped cookie cutter, it’s linked in the recipe card below.)
How can I make these without a heart shaped cookie cutter? If you don’t have a heart shaped cookie cutter, you can use a knife to cut out the heart shapes. They won’t be as perfect looking, but rustic is also good.
Baking
- These cookies are baked in my oven in 10 to 12 minutes. I consider them “baked” when the bottoms start to just slightly turn golden and the cookies are still mostly white in color. Oven temperatures vary, so make sure you watch them carefully. When out of the oven, move them off the hot cookie sheet immediately and onto to a cooling rack. It probably goes without saying (but, I’m going to say it anyway), that cookies should only be decorated after they have reached room temperature. The frosting would melt off a hot or warm cookie.
Decorating Heart Shaped Cookies
- Once your cookies are cooled, separate the frosting into 3 bowls, Add pink food coloring to one, red food coloring to another, and leave the last one white. Stir the two with the food coloring.
- Frost the cookies with a knife and use a piping bag to write cute sayings on your cookies.
What Valentine’s messages should I write on my cookies? There are so many options, you can stick with what you normally see on conversation heart candies, sayings like Wow, Text Me, Love, Cutie, Luv U, XOXO, Be Mine, UR Cute, My Girl, Laugh, As If, Kiss Me, Sweet – the possibilities are endless! The tweens and teens also have their own language (if you know, you know), so let them get creative. You can also pipe your Valentine’s name or nick name on the cookies or leave them blank.
Heart Shaped Cookie Tips and FAQs
- Chilling the dough before rolling it out is a must for this recipe, it will be too sticky if you don’t.
- Do not put cold dough cut-outs onto a hot cookie sheet. If you only have one cookie sheet to work with, make sure to cool it off completely under cold water before baking another batch.
- Can I make an icing to go with these instead of using frosting? Absolutely, if you would like to make your own icing for these with powdered sugar and milk, instead of using frosting, that is fine!
Conclusion
Shall we keep spreading the love, one heart shaped cookie at a time? Because sometimes it’s not just about making delicious treats, but the creative process behind them.
That aside, these heart-shaped cookies are truly irresistible; the cookie crunch, the sweetness, the colorful icing. As mentioned earlier, the decorative possibilities are endless. You can even forego piping words onto your cookies and using just sprinkles. Either way, they’re going to be perfect. Happy Valentine’s Day.
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Heart Shaped Cookies
Equipment
- Stand Mixer or hand mixer
- heart shaped cookie cutter (Used the largest heart from this set, 3.15")
Ingredients
Cookies:
- 3/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour more for flouring
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. table salt
Frosting:
- 1 can vanilla frosting
- red and pink food coloring (used red and pink from this set)
Instructions
Cookies:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla.3/4 cup butter, softened, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1 large egg, 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- Add flour, baking powder, and salt to the bowl. On low speed (at first) beat until the dough is well combined. (The dough is going to feel soft and sticky.)3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. table salt
- Chill the dough in the fridge for at least one hour (longer is okay).
- Preheat your oven to 350℉ and line your cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Flour the area you're going to be rolling out your dough on. With a rolling pin, roll out your dough about ¼ of an inch thick and cut out hearts with a heart shaped cookie cutter and place on your cookie sheets 1 to 2 inches apart; they do not spread much. (I used a 3.15" heart shaped cookie cutter, it's linked above in the recipe card.)
- Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the bottoms start to just slightly turn golden, but cookies are still mostly white in color. Remove cookies off the hot cookie sheet immediately and onto a cooling rack.
- Once cookies are cooled, separate the frosting into 3 bowls, Add pink food coloring to one, red food coloring to another, and leave the last one white. Stir the two with the food coloring.1 can vanilla frosting, red and pink food coloring
- Frost the cookies with a knife and use a piping bag to write cute sayings on your cookies (optional).
Notes
Nutrition
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