How To Make Valentine’s Day Heart Sugar Cookies
Surprise your special someone with these pretty and tasty sugar cookies that are shaped like hearts, and come topped with cute pastel-colored icing!
Serves:
Ingredients
- 2¼cupsall-purpose flour,spoon and leveled
- ½tspbaking powder
- ¼tspsalt
- ¾cupbutter,unsalted, softened to room temperature
- ¾cupgranulated sugar
- 1large egg,at room temperature
- 2tsppure vanilla extract
- ¼-½tspalmond extract,optional, for added flavor
For Royal Icing:
- 4cupsconfectioners’ sugar,sifted
- 3tbspmeringue powder
- 10tbspwater,at room temperature
- Americolor Soft Gel Paste Color Kit for coloring
Instructions
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Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
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In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed for about 1 minute until smooth.
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Add the granulated sugar and beat on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes until creamed.
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Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat on high speed for about 1 minute until combined.
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Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
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Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined.
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If the dough seems too soft, add 1 tablespoon more flour so it’s a better consistency for rolling.
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Divide the dough into 2 equal parts.
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Roll each portion out onto a piece of parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat (or a nonstick silicone mat) to about ¼-inch thickness.
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The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly ¼-inch thick.
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Stack the pieces, with parchment paper between the 2, onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 1 to 2 hours and up to 2 days.
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Once chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
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Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
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Remove one of the dough pieces from the refrigerator and using a heart cookie cutter, cut into heart shapes.
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Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd dough piece.
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Bake for 10 to 11 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges.
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Make sure to rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time.
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Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
Royal Icing:
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In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat all of the icing ingredients together on high speed for 5 minutes.
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When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 10 to 12 seconds.
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If it’s too thick, add a little more water. (around 12 to 14 tablespoons of water in total.)
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If it’s too thin, add a little more sifted confectioners’ sugar.
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Separate the icing into 6 different bowls.
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Stir in 1 tiny drop of the following colors into each bowl, 1 color per bowl: pink, violet, green, yellow, and orange.
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The 6th bowl is for the writing. Use 2 to 3 drops of red.
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Add the icing to a piping bag fitted with round icing tip #5.
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Decorate the cookies with colored icing.
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Use a round icing tip #1 for writing.
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Do not cover cookies as icing sets. Icing will set within 2 to 3 hours.
Recipe Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Plain or decorated sugar cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Wait for the icing to set completely before layering between sheets of parchment paper in a freezer-friendly container. To thaw, thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature. The cookie dough can freeze for up to 3 months before rolling it out. Prepare the dough through step 7, divide in half, flatten both halves into a disk as we do with pie crust, wrap each in plastic wrap, then freeze. To thaw, thaw the disks in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough as directed in step 8, then chill rolled out dough in the refrigerator for 45 minutes to 1 hour before cutting into shapes and baking.
- If chilling for more than a couple hours, cover the top dough piece with a single piece of parchment paper.
- Decorated or plain cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for 5 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.
Nutrition
- Calories: 206.92kcal
- Fat: 5.83g
- Saturated Fat: 3.58g
- Trans Fat: 0.22g
- Monounsaturated Fat: 1.51g
- Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.29g
- Carbohydrates: 35.13g
- Fiber: 0.30g
- Sugar: 26.16g
- Protein: 1.50g
- Cholesterol: 22.08mg
- Sodium: 36.17mg
- Calcium: 12.16mg
- Potassium: 23.66mg
- Iron: 0.59mg
- Vitamin A: 49.78µg
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