These decorated Valentine’s Day cookies resemble conversation heart candies—so fun for the holiday! My recipe for sugar cookies promises flavorful cookies with soft and thick centers, slightly crisp edges, and flat tops for decorating with royal icing. The dough comes together with 7–8 simple ingredients, and the cookies hold their cookie cutter shape in the oven.
Not to toot my own horn, but… I have absolutely *zero talent* when it comes to piping writing on cookies and cakes. Zero zip zilch. LOL. Pen and paper, great! Piping frosting on cupcakes and flooding icing on cookies, totally manageable! But combine writing + piping, and I completely lose control of my hand.
Recently, my talented assistant Stephanie came to my rescue, and helped me write on these conversation heart-inspired cookies. Because we just can’t make Valentine’s Day cookies without the fun little sayings on top!
Conversation Heart Candies
If you aren’t familiar with conversation heart candies, they are a Valentine’s Day staple here in the U.S. They’re like little edible love notes! Pastel-colored, a little chalky-tasting, and totally iconic, conversation hearts have been around for over a century. Did you know the company that produces them comes up with a new theme each year, and creates new sayings to go along with that theme? The sayings are usually sweet or funny, but can even be sassy or sarcastic!
But you don’t need to buy a bag of conversation hearts to make today’s recipe. You just need a rolling pin, a heart-shaped cookie cutter, and a little inspiration for what to write on top (I provide some suggestions below).
So Much to Love About These Valentine’s Day Cookies
These lookalike (but tasteabetter) heart-shaped treats start with my trusty recipe for sugar cookies. The cookies are soft and buttery with crisp edges. The dough holds its shape wonderfully in the oven. Sharp and precise; no misshapen hearts!
- Soft, thick centers with slightly crisp edges
- Irresistible buttery vanilla flavor
- Made from simple ingredients
- Leave plain or flavor with extracts
- Hold shape while baking
- Freeze beautifully
- Easy-to-follow dessert recipe used by beginner and expert bakers alike
We’re using royal icing for today’s Valentine’s Day sugar cookie decoration, but you can absolutely skip the writing and top them with buttercream like we do for these St. Patrick’s Day cookies, or use this easy glaze cookie icing instead.
Overview: How to Make Valentine’s Day Cookies
The Trick Is the Order of Steps
Notice how I roll out the dough BEFORE chilling it in the refrigerator? That’s my signature sugar cookie trick!
Let me explain why I do this. Just like when you’re making chocolate chip cookies, to prevent the cookies from over-spreading, the cookie dough must chill in the refrigerator. Roll out the dough right after you prepare it, then chill the rolled-out dough. (At this point the dough is too soft to cut into shapes.) Don’t chill the cookie dough and then try to roll it out because it will be too cold and difficult to work with. I divide the dough in half before rolling it out and highly recommend you do the same. Smaller sections of dough are simply more manageable.
Here’s another trick! Roll out the cookie dough directly on silicone baking mats or parchment paper sheets so you can easily transfer it to the refrigerator. Pick the whole thing up, set it on a baking sheet, and place it in the refrigerator. If you don’t have enough room for 2 baking sheets in your refrigerator, you can stack the pieces of rolled-out dough on top of each other (with parchment or baking mat in between).
Royal Icing Is Best for Writing on Cookies
This royal icing is my preferred sugar cookie icing because it’s easy to use, dries in a couple hours, and doesn’t have a texture comparable to hardened cement. (It’s actually on the softer side!) I use it for most of my sugar cookie recipes, including watermelon sugar cookies.
I make the royal icing with meringue powder. Meringue powder takes the place of liquid raw egg whites, which is found in traditional royal icing recipes. It eliminates the need for fresh eggs, but still provides the same consistency. You can find meringue powder in some baking aisles, most craft stores with a baking section, or shop for meringue powder online.
The trickiest part is landing on the perfect royal icing consistency..
Tools You Need for Decorating These Heart Sugar Cookies
For even more recommendations, see this full list of my favorite cookie decorating supplies.
I stuck with the shortest possible sayings and words because, well… you know my struggle. Some *short* conversation heart text inspiration:
- BFF
- Love
- Kiss
- Hug
- XOXO
- Sweet
- Wink
- Kind
- Me & U
- Cute
Have fun with it, and don’t worry about making them look perfect. You can even skip the writing for plain pastel Valentine’s Day cookies. Your Valentine will appreciate your efforts no matter what..
Valentine’s Day Cookies Recipe
Ingredients You’ll Need
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until completely smooth and creamy, 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. Dough will be a bit soft. If the dough seems too soft and sticky for rolling, add 1 more Tablespoon of flour.
- Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Place each portion onto a piece of lightly floured parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat. With a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use more flour if the dough seems too sticky. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly 1/4-inch thick.
- Lightly dust one of the rolled-out doughs with flour. Place a piece of parchment on top. (This prevents sticking.) Place the 2nd rolled-out dough on top. Cover with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days.
- Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2–3 large baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Carefully remove the top dough piece from the refrigerator. If it’s sticking to the bottom, run your hand under it to help remove it..5-inch size), cut the dough into hearts. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd piece of dough. (Note: It may not seem like a lot of dough, but you get a lot of cookies from the dough scraps you re-roll.)
- Arrange cookies on baking sheets 3 inches apart. Bake for 11–12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. If your oven has hot spots, rotate the baking sheets halfway through bake time. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
- . Use that as your guide for this step. Combine sifted confectioners’ sugar, meringue powder, and 9 Tablespoons of water in a large bowl. Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat icing ingredients together on high speed for 1.5–2 minutes. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 5–10 seconds. If it’s too thick, beat in more water 1 Tablespoon at a time. I usually need 10 Tablespoons, but on particularly dry days, I may use up to 12–14 Tablespoons. Keep in mind that the longer you beat the royal icing, the thicker it becomes. If your royal icing is too thin, just keep beating it to introduce more air OR you can add more sifted confectioners’ sugar. Yields about 3 cups of icing.
- Separate icing into 6 different bowls. (Or fewer bowls, depending how many colors you want.) 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. For that, stir in 2–3 drops of red. You won’t use the red icing for a couple hours after the base icing sets, so place a damp paper towel directly on the surface of it. This prevents it from hardening.
- Spoon or pour the pastel icings into piping bags (disposable or reusable) fitted with round piping tip #4. If you only have 1 tip and want to decorate with multiple colors of icing, keep the tip on the outside of the bag by using a coupler so you can easily transfer the piping tip to other bags of colored icing. Decorate cookies with colored icing by piping a border around the edges and then filling it. Let the icing-covered cookies mostly set, uncovered, for at least 2 hours before adding writing.
- Spoon or pour the red icing into a piping bag (disposable or reusable) fitted with round piping tip #2. Write desired words/messages on the cookies (ideas/suggestions listed in the post above!). Writing 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.
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