These cute heart cookies are buttery, delicious, and super easy to make. Perfect for Valentine's Day or just as an adorable snack.
You may have found this heart cookie post while searching for a Valentines Day cookie recipe. Or, if you're like me, maybe you just love to make everything into a heart shape any chance you get - because hearts are adorable, okay? Either way, these heart-shaped cookies will not disappoint! They are made with few ingredients and come together easily. They also hold their shape well in the oven so they won't spread - giving you perfect heart-shaped sugar cookies.
If it is some Valentine's Day baking love you are after, you might also enjoy my Red Velvet Brownies, or my pretty Valentine's Cupcakes with heart-shaped sprinkles. If you want to take it one step further, you can also use this same recipe to make Jammie Dodgers (heart jam cookies).
Jump to:
Ingredients
There are only three simple ingredients to make these heart cookies. (Four if you include the icing) The simple sugar cookie dough is based on shortbread cookies so they don't require any eggs or extra ingredients that you might find in a traditional sugar cookie recipe.
- Sugar - Regular white sugar is best for these cookies (also known as caster sugar).
- Butter - You can use salted or unsalted butter in this recipe, whichever you prefer. I used unsalted. Make sure the butter is room temperature before beginning.
- Flour - All-purpose flour (plain flour) creates the best texture for these cookies.
- Powdered Sugar - If you want to ice the cookies you'll also need some powdered sugar (icing sugar).
See recipe card for quantities.
How to Make Heart Cookies
Whether you're baking Valentine's Day cookies for your sweetheart or want a fun activity to do together - these heart cookies are super easy to make.
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. You can use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or an electric mixer, or you can just do it by hand.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then add the flour. Mix it in until the mixture starts to clump together. If the mixture looks too dry and won't clump together, you can add a small splash of milk to help it along.
- Use your hands to bring the mixture together to form a big ball of dough. Knead gently until the dough is nice and smooth, but be careful not to overwork it.
- Turn the cookie dough ball out onto a lightly floured surface and use your hands to form it into a round disc, then use a rolling pin to roll it out to roughly ¼ inch thickness
- Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out your heart cookies out of the rolled-out dough and place them on the prepared baking sheet. I find the best way to move my unbaked cookies around is with a cookie lifter.
- Once you have cut out all your shapes, you can scoop together the remaining dough and roll it out again to make more cookies. I don't recommend doing this more than twice though as the dough will start to dry out.
- Chill the heart cookies in the fridge for 30 minutes. This step is important to stop the cookies from spreading in the oven - so they will keep their pretty heart shape.
- Once the chill time is almost up, preheat your oven to 325°F / 160°C. Bake cookies for 12-15 minutes. The bake time can vary from oven to oven, so watch the cookies and take them out when the very edge starts to turn golden brown.
- Let the heart cookies sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool - this allows them to bake a little longer to be the perfect texture.
How to Decorate Heart Cookies
These heart cookies are super tasty as they are, but if you'd like to decorate them here are a few ideas:
Super Simple Icing - For the easiest, simplest icing mix 2 cups of powdered sugar in a medium bowl with 2 tablespoons of water and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste. This makes a sweet and simple icing that will be dry to the touch but won't set hard like royal icing would. You can also add a few drops of food coloring to it.
Royal Icing - If you want your icing to set hard so you can stack them, or you'd like to decorate your cookies with intricate designs, I recommend royal icing. Do this by beating together 2 egg whites with 2 cups of powdered sugar. Add a splash of water if you'd like a more runny consistency.
Chocolate - You can't go wrong with chocolate, especially not when it comes to Valentine's Day! You can drizzle your heart cookies with chocolate or dip them in. You could also pour the melted chocolate over them while they are on the cooling rack. I especially like this with dark chocolate but you can use any kind you like.
Sprinkles - You can't go wrong with sprinkles! You can put sprinkles on top of any of the options above, or even just bake them into the top of the cookie.
Variations
Different flavors - As this cookie recipe is so simple, it takes on other flavors very well. Try adding some almond extract or some lemon zest to switch up the flavor.
Thumbprint Cookies - Use your pinky finger to make a small indent in the centers of the cookies, then fill them with sweet raspberry jam before baking.
Heart Sandwich Cookies - For an extra fun and cute twist on Valentine cookies, use a smaller cutter to cut tiny hearts out of half of the cookies, then sandwich them together once baked with strawberry jam to make Jammie Dodgers. I have a full recipe post about how to make these.
Equipment
Storage
Store your heart sugar cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. If they don't have any icing on them, they will stay good like this for up to ten days. If they are iced, they will still be safe to eat but the icing may make the cookies go a little soggy after 4 or 5 days (unless it's royal icing).
For best results, line the bottom of your airtight container with paper towels to absorb any moisture. If moisture gets into the container the cookies will go soggy.
More Valentine's Day Recipes
For more dessert recipes to make for your sweetheart this Valentine's day, check these out:
Recipe
Heart Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks Butter 227g (room temperature)
- ½ cup White Sugar 100g
- 2 ¼ cups All-purpose Flour 270g
Instructions
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.2 sticks Butter, ½ cup White Sugar
- Add the flour and beat until dough-like clumps start to form.2 ¼ cups All-purpose Flour
- Tip the mixture out onto a floured work surface and use your hands to gently knead it together into a smooth ball of dough - this shouldn't take long, only 30 seconds or less.
- Use a large rolling pin to roll the dough out to ¼ inch thick, use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, and transfer them to the prepared cookie sheet.
- Chill the cut-out cookies for 30 minutes. This is to help them keep their shape in the oven, if you aren't worried about a little spreading then you can skip this step and put them straight in the oven.
- When the chill time is almost up, preheat the oven to 325°F / 160°C.
- Bake the cookies for 13-16 minutes, bake time will vary according to thickness so it's best to look for visual cues when they are ready. As soon as the very edge of any of the cookies starts to turn golden brown, remove them from the oven. They should still look very pale in the middle.
- Leave the cookies on the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
For the Icing
Notes
It really helps and I love hearing all your feedback!
Leave a Comment or Question