These heart shaped cookies are the perfect, no-fuss, Valentine's (or anytime) dessert! Enjoy these heart shaped sugar cookies with a hot cup of coffee or tea and don't forget to share them with your sweetie!
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This Valentine's Day, bake these delicious and easy-to-prepare heart-shaped cookies for yourself or your loved ones. Instead of icing, which sometimes can be a pain to make and work with, we'll melt white chocolate chips to decorate these yummy & crispy heart-shaped cookies!
This old-fashioned sugar cookie dough recipe doesn't even need to be chilled! It's easy to work with and tastes amazing! You can make these cookies any flavor you like. I used lemon extract but you can use almond, vanilla, orange, or any extract flavor you prefer!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- This is a simple yet delicious old-fashioned cookie recipe.
- Anyone can make and decorate these cookies, no skills required!
- The cookies pack and travel well!
- Shaped heart cookies make a great Valentine's Day treat!
- The cookie dough can be prepared ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen until you're ready to bake the cookies.
Recipe Ingredients & Substitutions
- All-purpose flour: You'll need all-purpose flour to make these cookies.
- Butter: Use unsalted butter. If you decide to use salted butter, don't add additional salt.
- Shortening: If you would rather not use shortening, you can increase the amount of butter by ¼ cup.
- Lemon extract: I love the flavor of lemon, so I opted for lemon extract. You can substitute vanilla extract or almond extract.
- White Chocolate: Instead of using royal icing, I decided to melt white chocolate chips to decorate the cookies. I am also including a glaze recipe if you prefer to glaze the cookies.
- Sprinkles: Choose from red, white, pink, or heart-shaped sprinkles unless you're making these cookies for other occasions besides Valentine's Day.
*For a full list of ingredients, check out the recipe card!
Tools Required
How to Make Heart Cookies
Step 1: Add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to a food processor. Pulse a few times to combine.
Step 2: Add cold cubed butter and shortening and pulse until crumbly. Use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl.
Step 3: Whisk egg, milk, and lemon extract in a small bowl and drizzle over the other ingredients in the food processor. Pulse until the dough comes together. Dump the mixture out of the food processor and onto plastic wrap and roll into a log.
Pro Tip: If you find it hard to roll out the dough, you can chill the dough for 30-60 minutes. Additionally, if the dough is too sticky, you can sprinkle it with flour.
Step 4: Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Leave one portion out and refrigerate the rest. Flour your work surface and rolling pin. Roll the dough out to about ⅛" to ¼" thickness. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the cookies.
Pro Tip: Depending on how thick you roll them and the size of your cookie cutter, you may end up with more or fewer cookies. Mine were closer to ⅛" thick, and I used a 3 ¼" cookie cutter.
Step 5: Use a pastry scraper to transfer the cookies to a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Leave enough room for the cookies to expand. Bake in a preheated 350-degree F oven for approximately 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
Pro Tip: If you don't have parchment paper, you can use silicone baking mats.
Step 6: Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Continue this process until all the cookies are baked.
How to Decorate the Cookies
Step 1: Place white chocolate chips in a small ziplock bag. Work the chips into the corner of the bag and twist, secure with a rubber band. Place the chocolate chips in a small bowl. Pour hot water into the bowl. You may need to massage the bag for a minute until the chocolate is completely melted.
Step 2: Cut the tip of the bag to allow the chocolate to be squeezed out, then gently squeeze the melted chocolate out of the bag to decorate the cookies. Before the chocolate hardens, top the cookies with sprinkles.
Glaze (optional)
If you prefer using a glaze, here's how to make it.
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 2 Tbsp whole milk
- ½ tsp lemon, vanilla, or almond extract
- Food coloring
Whisk sugar, milk, and extract in a bowl until smooth. Add more milk or sugar until you reach the desired consistency. Divide the icing into smaller bowls and add food coloring to make different colored icing. Use to decorate cooled cookies.
FAQS
If you don't have a heart-shaped cookie cutter and can't borrow one, you can use a small paring knife to trace hearts into your rolled-out cookie dough. You can also make a heart-shaped cookie cutter with foil using this tutorial.
It's better to cut out cookies before baking them rather than after. If you cut out the cookies after baking, you will be wasting all the cookie dough in between the cookies instead of rerolling the dough to make more cookies.
For even baking, cookies should be baked on your oven's center rack. If your oven has a hot spot, you may need to rotate the pan halfway through the baking time.
Pro Tips
- It may be helpful to flour your cookie cutter.
- Don't use dark cookie sheets to bake the heart-shaped sugar cookies. Dark pans can easily burn the bottom of the cookies.
- Allow the cookie sheets to completely cool before baking the next batch.
- Heart sugar cookies are great for gifting.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
More Cookie Recipes
If you enjoyed this heart-shaped sugar cookies recipe, you may also like these cookie recipes!
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Recipe
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Ingredients
Method
- Add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to a food processor. Pulsa a few times to combine.
- Add cold cubed butter and shortening and pulse until crumbly. Use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Whisk egg, milk, and lemon extract in a small bowl and drizzle over the other ingredients in the food processor. Pulse until the dough comes together. Dump the mixture out of the food processor and onto plastic wrap and roll into a log.
- Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Leave one portion out and refrigerate the rest. Flour your work surface and rolling pin. Roll the dough out to about ⅛" to ¼" thickness. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out the cookies.
- Use a pastry scraper to transfer the cookies to a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Leave enough room for the cookies to expand. Bake in a preheated 350-degree F oven for approximately 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes then transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Continue this process until all the cookies are baked.
- Place white chocolate chips in a small ziplock bag. Work the chips into the corner of the bag and twist, secure with a rubber band. Place the chocolate chips in a small bowl. Pour hot water into the bowl. You may need to massage the bag for a minute until the chocolate is completely melted.
- Cut the tip of the bag to allow the chocolate to be squeezed out, then gently squeeze the melted chocolate out of the bag to decorate the cookies. Before the chocolate hardens, top the cookies with sprinkles.
- Whisk sugar, milk, and extract in a bowl until smooth. Add more milk or sugar until you reach the desired consistency. Divide the icing into smaller bowls and add food coloring to make different colored icing. Use to decorate cooled cookies.
Nutrition
Video
Notes
- If you find it hard to roll out the dough, you can chill the dough for 30-60 minutes. Additionally, if the dough is too sticky, you can sprinkle it with flour.
- Depending on how thick your roll them and the size of your cookie cutter, you may end up with more or fewer cookies. Mine were closer to ⅛" thick and I used a 3 ¼" cookie cutter.
- If you don't have parchment paper, you can use silicone baking mats.
- It may be helpful to flour your cookie cutter.
- Don't use dark cookie sheets to bake the cookies. Darker pans can easily burn the bottom of the cookies.
- Allow the cookie sheets to completely cool before baking the next batch.
- Heart sugar cookies are great for gifting.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Lisa says
Made a test batch, and they came out perfect! Not too sweet with a nice texture. I'll be making a full batch for Valentine's Day.
Hilda Sterner says
Thanks, Lisa. Happy early Valentine's Day!
Karen Kelly says
These cookies were so easy to make and a huge hit with the kids. Perfect for a Valentine's Day gift!
Hilda Sterner says
Thanks Karen! I totally agree, my BIG kid loves them too!
Kris says
The kids had so much fun making these and they came out so tender and flavorful! Will certainly make again!
Hilda Sterner says
Thanks, Kris! I'm so glad to hear that. Thanks for coming back and leaving a review!
Bella B says
I feel like it was just Christmas but excited to have another holiday for an excuse to bake cookies. Tried these out this weekend and really loved them! 🙂
Hilda Sterner says
Thanks, Bella! I really appreciate your review! 🙂
Healing Tomato says
I always make heart shaped cookies on Valentine's day and Birthdays too. Your recipe is so good because it's easy to bake especially for baking-challenged people like me. I went with the glazed option and it came out so very good.
Hilda Sterner says
Yes, if I can decorate these cookies, anyone can. 😂 I'm much better at eating them!
Elissa Oldham says
You ought to take part in a contest for one of the best sites online. I will highly recommend this site!
Hilda Sterner says
Thank you! 🙂