Valentines Day Heart Sugar Cookies Recipes

VALENTINE'S DAY HEART SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
• In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract (if using) and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. If the dough seems too soft, you can add 1 Tablespoon more flour so it's a better consistency for rolling.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Roll each portion out onto a piece of parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat (I prefer the nonstick silicone mat) to about 1/4″ thickness. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly ¼-inch thick.
• Stack the pieces, with parchment paper between the two, onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days. If chilling for more than a couple hours, cover the top dough piece with a single piece of parchment paper.
• Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Remove one of the dough pieces from the refrigerator and using a heart cookie cutter, cut into heart shapes. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd dough piece.
• Bake for 10-11 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Make sure you rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
• 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. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 10-12 seconds. If it's too thick, add a little more water. (On particularly dry days, I use up to 12-14 Tablespoons water total.) If it's too thin, add a little more sifted confectioners' sugar. Separate icing into 6 different bowls. Stir in 1 tiny drop of the following colors into each bowl, 1 color per bowl: pink, violet, green, yellow, and orange. The 6th bowl is for the writing. Use 2-3 drops of red.
• Add icing to piping bag fitted with round icing tip #5. Decorate cookies with colored icing. Use round icing tip #1 for writing. Do not cover cookies as icing sets. Icing will set within 2-3 hours.
• Decorated or plain cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for 5 days or in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.

VALENTINE'S DAY SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
• For the cookies: Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and mix until fully incorporated, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and mix until well combined, scraping down sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed, about 2 minutes.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Working with 1 piece at a time, roll the dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper until it's about 1/8-inch thick. Using heart-shaped cookie cutters, cut the dough and place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart (a small off-set spatula is really helpful when transferring the cookies). After both pieces of dough have been rolled out and cut, combine the dough scraps and re-roll and cut to utilize as much of the dough as possible.
• Bake until the cookies are just barely golden around the edges, rotating halfway through, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
• For the icing: Meanwhile, whisk the confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth. The consistency should be similar to that of slightly thinned yogurt and should coat the back of a spoon. Adjust with additional confectioners' sugar or milk, if needed.
• Place 2 tablespoons of icing into each of 2 small bowls. Add 4 drops of red gel food coloring to one bowl and 2 drops of pink gel food coloring to the other and stir until fully incorporated. Using a small spoon, drizzle a small amount of each color over the white icing and then repeatedly drag a toothpick through the icing until you create a marbled effect.
• Working with one cooled cookie at a time, carefully dip it face-side down into the icing and allow any excess to drip off before placing the cooking back on the cooling rack. Add additional red and pink icing to the bigger bowl of icing as needed to maintain the marbling effect. Decorate with sprinkles (if using) before allowing to the icing to fully set, about 4 to 5 hours.

VALENTINE'S DAY SUGAR COOKIES

Steps:

• COOKIE INSTRUCTIONS:
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Cream the soft butter with the sugar until the combination is smooth not grainy to the touch in a mixing bowl.
• Add all 4 eggs at one time. Continue to mix.
• Sift the four, baking powder, and salt together. Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture. Continue mixing to make sure all ingredients are thoroughly blended.
• Make the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling wrap completely covering the entire dough ball.
• Put in the refrigerator for about 6 hours or overnight.
• Check to see if the dough is firm. Pull the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and sit it out to soften up a bit.
• Put flour out on the wood cutting board, rub flour on the rolling pin, and work some flour into the batter (if needed), a heart cookie cutter begin to make your cookies.
• Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• Using a metal spatula move the cut cookies to the parchment lined cookie sheet.
• Bake at 325 degrees F for 8-10 minutes until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges.
• Check to see if the cookies are thoroughly baked.
• Take the cookies off of the cookie sheet and put on a wire rack to cool completely.(About 10 minutes).
• ICING INSTRUCTIONS:
• Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl mixing on medium speed for 4 minutes. (except your food coloring). If icing is not stiff enough add ¼ C powdered sugar until the icing is to a 15 second consistency. Which means that when you slice a spatula across the top of the icing, it would take 15 seconds to disappear.
• Separate the icing into 5 small bowls. Mix the icing with the food gel coloring of your choice. I used for the cookies - pastel colors: pink, yellow, purple and green and then the final bowl is for the writing and I chose a darker color of red (but you can use any color that you prefer).
• Place the pastel icing in piping bags and place the pastel icing on the cookies. Let this icing cool completely (2-3 hours).
• Then place the red icing in a decorated bag fitted with tip #1 and write your favorite Valentine's Day sayings in the center of each cookie. Some that I love using are Love, BFF, Cutie, XOXO, Call Me, Hug, Kiss, etc.
• Then allow the writing icing to cool completely (2-3 hours).
• Do not cover the cookies while the icing is cooling.
• After the icing has cooled completely, store at room temperature in an air tight container for up to 5-7 days.