These Valentine's Heart Sugar Cookies are made with my favorite simple, no-fail sugar cookie dough. It's buttery, soft and irresistible. Topped with a simple icing that resembles royal icing but without all the hassle, these cookies are the perfect cookie to decorate with kiddos.
Valentine's Heart Sugar Cookies
How fun are these Valentine's heart shaped cookies? My 3 year old and I had a blast baking and decorating them!
I made them with my all-time favorite sugar cookie recipe and I'm pretty certain that it's the best sugar cookie recipe out there. Trust me, I've tried a gazillion variations of this simple recipe and this version has been finally perfected.
The Secret to Perfect Sugar Cookies
If you don't already know the secret to perfect sugar cookie cutouts that hold their shape, I'll share it with you: when you roll out your dough, you need to refrigerate it for at least an hour before cutting out the shapes. 2 hours is even better! Then cut out your cookie shapes and immediately pop them in the oven.
The second secret to perfect sugar cookies is to use a silicone baking mat. That way you don' t have to grease a cookie sheet that will result in your cookies spreading.
These cookies are rolled out to about ¼ inch thick. This results the perfect soft sugar cookie!
Easy Cookie Icing
See that colorful icing on top of those heart shaped beauties? It's not royal icing, folks! It's my favorite sugar cookie icing and it's just a simple mixture of powdered sugar, milk and vanilla and natural food coloring.
It doesn't completely harden like royal icing but hardens on top and stays soft underneath. It's much nicer to taste than royal icing, quick to make and easy to work with, too!
I simply put a dollop in the center of the cookie and used the back of a teaspoon to move it around, until it roughly filled the shape of the heart. Then we added sprinkles (naturally colored, too!), or allowed the icing to firm up before adding another color on top.
We devoured the entire batch in 3 days!! They are just TOO good!
Of course, you could use royal icing on yours, a buttercream frosting or anything you like. Heck, these cookies even taste amazing with nothing on them!
Valentine's Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 8 ounces butter room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon water
- 3 cups flour
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Cream butter, sugar and vanilla
- Add egg and water. Beat until light in color and fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Blend dry mixture into creamed mixture.
- Divide dough into two pieces. Roll out each piece to ¼ inch thick. Refrigerate 1 - 2 hours (or overnight).
- Cut out heart shapes from the chilled dough. Place on a silicone baking mat or parchment lined baking sheet.
- Bake at 375°F for 6-8 minutes. Remove before the edges start to turn brown. The cookies will be soft to touch and will firm up as they cool down.
- Allow to cool completely before frosting.
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