Heart Shaped Cookies With Royal Icing
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These heart shaped sugar cookies for your Valentine are nearly too pretty to eat and perfectly soft and sweet, thanks to the royal icing.
Look at these Valentine sugar cookies. Aren’t they adorable!? Makes you just want to run up to someone you love and give them a few! These Valentine’s heart shaped sugar cookies are as good to eat as they are to look at. And the Royal icing recipe can be found in its own post here.
I remember when I was in grade school and had a crush on a boy named Mike. I thought I was being so sly when I slipped some of those little heart shaped candies with Be Mine on them in his desk. Well, everyone and their brother knew it was me. If I was braver back then I would have plopped a plate of these beauties right on his desk and would have said “Eat your heart out!”. Let me know of any special Valentine’s memories you have in the comments at the end of this post.
A Little History About Valentine’s Day
If you are curious there are many sources that talk about Valentine’s Day and how it started. Was it St. Valentine from Christian history or some other origin? Realsimple.com gives a detailed history here if you are interested. There seems to be a combination of a holiday rooted in Christianity or ancient Greek mythology. Sounds like a Discovery Channel movie to me.
Now let’s get to baking…
Recipe Ingredients
- Softened butter
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Egg
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Flour
How To Make Heart Shaped Cookies for Valentine’s Day
In a large bowl, add the butter, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
Mix until well blended, light, and a bit fluffy.
Add milk, egg, and vanilla.
Mix until well combined.
Add in the flour.
And mix until well combined, scraping down the sides if need be.
Chill the cookie dough for half an hour, or until easy to handle.
On a flour-lined surface, turn out the cookie dough and sprinkle it with more flour.
Roll out to a 1/4-inch thickness.
Cut with heart-shaped cookie cutters.
Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for seven to eight minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned.
Remove from the oven. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet and then remove to cool completely.
Icing Your Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies
When the heart shaped cookies are cool, it’s time to apply your royal icing. Visit this blog post for a comprehensive royal icing tutorial.
For Valentine’s Day, start piping your favorite messages. And don’t worry if you mess up! They taste just the same with a little authenticity piped on!
Oh my goodness aren’t they just adorable?! Your Valentine(s) will be impressed ❤️.
Storage
- Store decorated cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days or the fridge for up to 10 days.
- You can also freeze the cookies for up to 3 months. Just thaw overnight in the fridge before serving.
Recipe Notes
- Stick with the Valentine theme and decorate your sugar cookies with only red and pink icing.
- Instead of royal icing, you can also decorate your heart shaped cookies with buttercream frosting, chocolate ganache, a simple vanilla glaze with sprinkles, or store-bought frosting.
- While this is a Valentine’s Day post, you can use this sugar cookie recipe for so many special occasions just by using a different cookie cutter or no cookie cutter at all!
- For added flavor, add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract to your sugar cookie dough.
Ingredients
- 2/3 c softened butter
- 3/4 c granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 tbsp milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 c flour
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add the butter, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix until well blended, light, and fluffy. Add the milk, vanilla, and egg. Mix again. Add in the flour and mix until well combined, scraping down the sides if need be.2/3 c softened butter, 3/4 c granulated sugar, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 large egg, 1 tbsp milk, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 c flour
- Chill dough for half an hour, or until easy to handle.
- On a flour-lined surface, turn out the cookie dough and sprinkle it with more flour. Roll out to 1/4-inch thickness and cut with heart-shaped cookie cutters. Place on ungreased cookie sheets.
- Bake at 375 for seven to eight minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are very lightly browned. Remove from the oven. Allow to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet and then remove to cool completely.
- Apply royal icing (recipe link in notes) to the cooled cookies and decorate as desired.
Notes
Nutrition
You may enjoy these other Valentine dessert recipes:
Valentine’s Day Brownies With Frosting
Valentine’s Treats for the One’s You Love
M &M Cookies Recipe by Mama (Old Fashioned Recipe!)
Valentine’s Recipes; make it special, make it fun!
My grandkids & my husband love sugar cookies. I will definitely give this one a try. Sounds pretty easy
I have my mother’s old cookie cutters. Fond memories of sitting on the kitchen table to decorate sugar cookies with the family
I’ve made the Cherry Cream Pie so many times and it is so good! Old fashion dessert that brings back good memories! I have used Blueberry, Cherry, Strawberry and even Apple Pie filling and it never fails to make everyone happy!!!
Very cute!! Love the orange and purple colored icing!!
I will have to make these cookies for my grandson. He loves sugar cookies. I appreciated the suggestion below to also try these cookies in animal shapes. That is a great idea! I also appreciated the suggestion of placing the dough in a Ziploc bag to chill.
Your crush Mike would have loved these much better than the heart shaped candies!!!
I love the look and taste of sugar cookies!
Will this recipe work with baking cocoa to make cookies chocolate?
I don’t see why not, let me know how it turns out!
Stacey Lynn