Best German Heart Cookies Recipes

GERMAN GINGERBREAD HEARTS (MARKT LEBKUCHENHERZEN)

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Bring the butter, honey, sugar, cocoa powder and gingerbread spice mix to a boil in a medium-sized saucepan.
• Boil for several minutes until the sugar dissolves, then remove from heat and cool slightly.
• Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt into a bowl.
• Make a depression in the bowl and add the egg, then pour the honey mixture over the flour and mix on low speed until a ball of dough can be formed.
• The ball of dough might still be shaggy but will form a smooth dough as it cools down, so do not add extra flour.
• Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and put in a safe place at room temperature for 4 to 48 hours.(This dough should rest overnight before baking for best results.)
• Heat the oven to 350 F.
• Roll out half the dough to 1/2-inch thickness on a lightly floured board.
• Use a large, heart-shaped cookie cutter or your own template to cut out large, heart shaped cookies.
• If you want to hang these hearts from a ribbon, create 1 or 2 holes about 3/4-inch below the rim of the cookie before you bake it.
• Repeat with the rest of cookie dough. This dough does not reroll well, so take care to roll it into the right size the first time.
• Place the cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cookies are set in the middle and lightly browned on the bottom. Bake the trimmed scraps to use for practice decorating.
• Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet. They will harden as they cool. Although they are edible, this dough is most often used to make decorative cookies that are hung on the wall or around the recipient's neck and are seldom eaten.
• Use tinted royal icing to decorate the cookies. You only need about half of the recipe, but you will want to practice decorating with your baked scraps, and you might want to use several colors, so make the whole batch.
• Tint some of the icing in a separate bowl using normal food coloring. if the icing is not completely tinted you can create swirls of lighter and darker colors as you pipe it.
• Place the icing in a decorator bag with a leaf tip attached to make the border. Use a writing tip for the words. Find out more about filling and using pastry bags here .
• Decorate as you like. It is traditional to write cute sayings in the center and give the cookies to people you like.

OLD GERMAN HONEY COOKIES

Steps:

• In a saucepan over low heat, melt together sugar, shortening and honey. Let cool.
• Mix together eggs, vanilla, baking soda and ginger. Gradually add to cooled honey mixture.
• Slowly add 4 cups of flour to mixture. Stir until well blended. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) until golden (about 12-15 minutes).

LINZER HEART COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, cocoa, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in almonds. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until easy to handle. , On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a 3-in. heart-shaped cookie cutter. From the center of half the cookies, cut out a 1-1/2-in. heart or round shape. , Place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool., Spread 1/2 teaspoon jam over the bottom of the solid cookies. Sprinkle cutout cookies with confectioners' sugar; carefully place over jam.

HEART COOKIES DECORATED WITH ROYAL ICING

Steps:

• Cream 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Add white sugar and lemon zest and mix well. Mix in eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Mix in 1/2 of the flour until combined. Mix in remaining flour until dough comes together.
• Shape dough with your hands into a thick rectangle. Press flat and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Dust a work surface with flour and roll out dough into a thin circle. Cut out heart shapes and arrange cut-out cookies on the prepared baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove hearts from baking sheets carefully and transfer to wire racks. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
• Beat egg whites in a bowl until frothy. Beat in confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until stiff peaks form. Add lemon juice to thin out the mixture. Add more lemon juice for runnier icing. Divide icing into small bowls and color with red food coloring in different shades of red or pink, keeping a portion of the icing white. Cover with a damp kitchen towel at all times so it won't dry out.
• Decorate as you like using different techniques. For the flood technique, use runny royal icing in a piping bag with a small round #2 tip and pipe a line around the edge of the cookies. Fill in the center, evenly distributing the icing with a scriber tool.
• For hearts, add dots of a different color onto the wet icing and drag the scriber tool downwards through the dots. For lips, add an oval shape onto the wet icing and shape the oval into lips with the scriber tool.
• For feathers or patterns, pipe a line around the edge, then add stripes in different colors. Drag the scriber tool down through the stripes. For a marbled effect, pipe lines of different colors across a base layer, then drag the scriber tool up and down through the lines. Allow the icing to set completely.