Best Heart Of My Heart 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.

HEART-SHAPED COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Cream sugar and butter with an electric mixer until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla extract. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl and add to butter mixture. Mix well.
• Put a handful of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and roll to desired thickness. Repeat with the rest of the dough. Put the rolled dough, including the parchment paper, on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes or longer. Repeat the process with scraps after cutting cookies.
• Cut 24 heart-shaped cookies of the same size from the dough. Use a smaller heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut a second hole in half of the cookies; this will be the window where the jam will show through. Transfer the cut cookies to a baking sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack to allow to cool, 20 to 30 minutes. Spread about 1/2 teaspoon of jam into the centers of the cookies without the heart-cut centers. Sprinkle powdered sugar on the rest of the cookies with the heart-cut centers, and mount onto the cookies with jam.

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.

CHOCOLATE HEART COOKIES

Steps:

• In a small bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour and cocoa; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. , On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a 3-in. heart-shaped cookie cutter. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. , Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until firm. Remove to wire racks to cool., In a microwave, melt vanilla chips and 1 tablespoon shortening at 70% power for 1 minute; stir. Microwave at additional 10- to 20-second intervals, stirring until smooth., Dip both sides of cookies into melted mixture; allow excess to drip off. Place on waxed paper; let stand until set. , In a microwave, melt the chocolate chips and remaining shortening; stir until smooth. Drizzle over the cookies. Place on wire racks to dry.

JEWEL HEART COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, whisk together flour and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat 1 cup granulated sugar with butter until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and vanilla; mix until well combined. With mixer on low, slowly add flour mixture; mix until a dough forms. Turn dough out onto work surface and divide into quarters. Form each quarter into a 5-inch disk. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and transfer to refrigerator. Let chill until firm, about 2 hours.
• Meanwhile, place lychees in the bowl of a food processor; process until very smooth. Transfer to a medium saucepan along with raspberry jam and prosecco. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium-high heat until jam mixture has reduced and thickened, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Transfer cooled jam mixture to a disposable pastry bag fitted with a medium petal decorating tip (such as a Wilton No. 104).
• Line 2 baking sheets with nonstick baking mats and set aside. Place a piece of parchment paper over the heart-shaped template and trace; cut out heart shape. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out one piece of dough to 1/4-inch thick. Using a 5-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out 2 heart shapes; transfer to prepared baking sheet.
• Place parchment paper template over one of the cut out hearts and, using the sides of a metal ruler or the back of a knife, score lines to divide the heart into 7 sections (see template). Using an offset spatula, gently press down on the sections of the heart cookie that are to be filled with jam (see template). Repeat process with remaining pieces of dough. Outline indented areas with jam mixture. Draw several zigzags across entire surface of the outlined area. If necessary, use a toothpick to spread evenly to cover area. Transfer cookies to refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Transfer cookies to oven and bake until edges are golden brown, 10 to 11 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
• Divide royal icing evenly between two bowls. Using a toothpick, add two drops pink-rose gel coloring to one bowl of icing; stir until well combined. If icing is not pink enough, add a few more drops of food coloring until you have created a light-pink color. In the remaining bowl of icing, add 3 or 4 drops of pink-rose gel food coloring using a toothpick; stir until well combined. Using a toothpick, add 1 drop of sky-blue gel food coloring; stir until well combined. Keep adding drops of blue food coloring until icing is a raspberry color. Transfer each bowl of icing to a disposable pastry bag fitted with a round tip (such as Wilton No. 3).
• Cut out pieces of parchment paper about the same size and shape as the jam-filled areas of the cookie; spray each piece with nonstick vegetable cooking spray and cover jam areas. Using the light-pink royal icing, outline the pink areas of the cookie (see template). Draw several zigzags across entire surface of the outlined area. If necessary, use a toothpick to spread evenly. Sprinkle with pink pastel sanding sugar to cover.
• Using the raspberry royal icing, outline the raspberry areas of the cookie (see template). Draw several zigzags across entire surface of the outlined area. If necessary, use a toothpick to spread evenly. Sprinkle with raspberry sanding sugar to cover. Peel parchment off jam-filled areas and let cookies dry completely.

SNOWY HEART CUTOUTS

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, flour, softened butter and egg until soft dough forms.
• On floured surface, roll dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with 2 1/2- to 3-inch cookie cutters. On ungreased cookie sheets, place cutouts 1 inch apart.
• Bake 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.
• Spread frosting on cooled cookies. Decorate as desired with decorator sugar crystals. Store cookies in tightly covered container.

CHOCOLATE CHIP HEART COOKIES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, flour, butter and egg until well blended. Roll into 1 1/4-inch balls.
• Spray cookie cutter with cooking spray; place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press dough ball evenly into cutter. Remove cutter; reshape dough if necessary. Continue making heart-shaped cookies, placing 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Spray cookie cutter as needed with cooking spray.
• Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet.