Easy and beautiful Valentine's heart cookies that don't require any decorating. Freezes wonderfully for making in advance.
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Instead of macarons I made these marbled Valentine's cookies for V-day gift giving this year and they saved me so much time! I love that they look marvelous and keep well at room temperature. Being a busy mom of 3, three and under, I really appreciate any bakes I can make in advance and safely store away in the freezer until I need it. It really reduces so much anxiety before the big day. I think you'll find it extremely easy to put together as well.
Enjoy & Happy Valentine's Day!
Xoxo, Mimi
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Easy - no decorating needed after baking.
- Delicious - the edges have a nice snap with soft centers. Use of almond extract makes them incredible!
- Simple year-round ingredients
- Perfect for Valentine's day, baby showers, birthdays and more
- Stable at room temperature for gift giving, packaging and travelling.
- Freezes well - make the dough or completed cookies in advance.
What Type of Cookie is This?
This marbled cookie uses a standard sugar cookie dough recipe. Sugar cookies have similar ingredients as shortbread and butter cookies but they differ in terms of the ratios. Sugar cookies have the most flour to fat ratio of the three which makes it spread less and is less crumbly. This makes the cookies perfect for decorating with royal icing or creating marbled effects like in this recipe.
Other Valentine's cookies you might like: Cinnamon Heart Cutout Linzer Cookie, Pink Cotton Candy Meringue Cookies, Lychee Rose Macarons and Rose Ispahan Macaron Cake.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- All-purpose flour - can be substituted with cake flour if a slightly softer cookie is preferred.
- Baking powder - leavening agent. Do not use baking soda.
- Sea salt - use to contrast with the sweet taste. If using table salt, use half of the amount.
- Butter, unsalted - if using salted butter, omit the salt. It must be at room temperature for it to incorporate fully into the dough.
- Granulated sugar
- Egg - large size. It must be at room temperature for it to incorporate fully into the dough.
- Vanilla extract - either pure or artificial.
- (Optional) Almond extract* - almond extract makes sugar cookies taste amazing and cuts down on the "sweetness level" especially when royal icing is used to decorate the cookie. It is almost always in stock in the baking aisle of well stocked grocery stores near the other extracts.
- Gel food color - gel color is preferred over liquid to achieve a bolder color while reducing excess moisture into the batter.
Step By Step
In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt.
In a separate bowl, with a handheld mixer or in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar on medium speed until it's light colored and fluffy. Occasionally, scrape down the sides and bottom with a spatula. Add egg and extracts and beat to incorporate. It will look thick, uniformed and glossy.
Stop mixer, add the dry ingredients. Stir on lowest setting until the flour is fully incorporated, scrape down the sides and bottom as needed.
Remove ⅔ of the dough from the mixer, this will be the white color. Add a few drops of pink gel color into remaining batter and stir until color is incorporated. Scrape the 2 batches of dough onto separate plastic wrap. Wrap up and press down to create a disk. Chill in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour so it can be easier to roll.
Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Cut chilled dough into strips. Lay all the pink colored ones and some of the white ones out on a lightly floured surface in an alternating pattern. (The rest of the white dough will be reserved for mixing with the remaining pink dough when it needs to be re-rolled after cutting. This will ensure the rest of the dough maintains a marbled look.)
Roll the dough into a flat sheet. If dough gets sticky in the rolling process, add more flour as needed. To create marbled effect, fold the dough a few times at a 90 degree angle (see photo in post) and then roll it into a ball. Roll out the dough to a thickness of ¼".
Dip 2 ½ inch heart cookie cutter into flour and cut out dough. (The flour prevents the cutter from sticking for cleaner lines.) Remove excess dough and chill in fridge for re-rolling with the remaining white dough. Transfer cookies to a pan lined with parchment paper or silicone mats, leaving at least 1 inch of space between each cookie. Optional: Chill the pan of cut out cookie dough in fridge before baking to eliminate spreading.
Bake for 11-14 minutes on the middle rack until the edges of the cookie are slightly golden. Let cool on pan for 5-10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack, they will cook further on the pan. Marbled heart cookies can stay fresh in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. Refer to post on how to freeze dough or cookies for making in advance. Enjoy!
How to Make This Cookie in Advance
This marbled sugar cookie can be conveniently made well in advance of special events by freezing the dough or completed cookie. My favorite method is freezing the completed cookie, it cuts down on the work and eliminates the anxiety of things going wrong in the last minute.
- To Refrigerate Dough: keep wrapped dough disks in the fridge for up to 5 days before baking.
- To Freeze Dough: place wrapped dough disks inside a Ziplock bag. The day before baking, transfer to the fridge overnight to defrost. It can be kept in the freezer for up to 1 month. Tip: to defrost frozen dough quickly, place dough in water proof bag (e.g. Stashers) and soak in a bowl of cold water with tap lightly running into the bowl to cook things cool, takes about half hour.
- To Freeze Completed Cookie: place inside Ziplock bags, squeeze out excess air and freeze. It can be frozen for up to 1 month. To defrost, transfer to fridge (without opening the bag) the day before packaging.
How to Store this Cookie
Marbled sugar cookies can be kept in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer in a Ziplock bag for up to 1 month.
Ideas for Decorating this Cookie For Valentine's Day
As you can see these marbled heart cookies already look amazing straight out of the oven but here are a few ideas on how to decorate them further.
- Royal icing: This is a sugar cookie recipe so it's perfectly suited for use as a delicious cookie base for royal icing. You can partially flood with icing on order to reveal parts of the marbled effect.
- Stamping: for Valentine's Day, you can easily make conversation hearts by stamping the cookies before baking. For sharper edges around the stamped design or letters, I like to chill the tray of cookies before stamping.
- Calligraphy: calligraphy can be added to the baked cookies with edible gold paint after the they have cooled down. Perfect for wedding favors or unique name cards.
Recipe
Marbled Valentine's Cookies - No Decorating Needed
Easy and beautiful Valentine's heart cookies that don't require any decorating. Freezes wonderfully for making in advance.
Ingredients
- 210 grams all-purpose flour*
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon sea salt*
- 115 grams unsalted butter, room temperature*
- 150 grams granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- (Optional) ½ teaspoon almond extract*
- Pink gel food color
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a separate bowl, with a handheld mixer or in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugar on medium speed until it's light colored and fluffy. Occasionally, scrape down the sides and bottom with a spatula.
- Add egg and extracts and beat to incorporate. It will look thick, uniformed and glossy.
- Stop mixer, add the dry ingredients. Stir on lowest setting until the flour is fully incorporated, scrape down the sides and bottom as needed.
- Remove ⅔ of the dough from the mixer, this will be the white color. Add a few drops of pink gel color into remaining batter and stir until color is incorporated.
- Scrape the 2 batches of dough onto separate plastic wrap. Wrap up and press down to create a disk. Chill in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour so it can be easier to roll.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 F
- Cut chilled dough into strips. Lay all the pink colored ones and some of the white ones out on a lightly floured surface in an alternating pattern. (The rest of the white dough will be reserved for mixing with the remaining pink dough when it needs to be re-rolled after cutting. This will ensure the rest of the dough maintains a marbled look.)
- Roll the dough into a flat sheet. If dough gets sticky in the rolling process, add more flour as needed. To create marbled effect, fold the dough a few times at a 90 degree angle (see photo in post) and then roll it into a ball. Roll out the dough to a thickness of ¼".
- Dip 2 ½ inch heart cookie cutter into flour and cut out dough. (The flour prevents the cutter from sticking for cleaner lines.)
- Remove excess dough and chill in fridge for re-rolling with the remaining white dough.
- Transfer cookies to a pan lined with parchment paper or silicone mats, leaving at least 1 inch of space between each cookie.
- Optional: Chill the pan of cut out cookie dough in fridge before baking to eliminate spreading.
- Bake for 11-14 minutes on the middle rack until the edges of the cookie are slightly golden.
- Let cool on pan for 5-10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack, they will cook further on the pan.
- Marbled heart cookies can stay fresh in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. Refer to post on how to freeze dough or cookies for making in advance. Enjoy!
Notes
All-purpose flour - can be substituted with cake flour if a slightly softer cookie is preferred.
If using table salt, use half of the amount.
Butter and egg (large size) must be at room temperature for it to incorporate fully into the dough.
Almond extract makes sugar cookies taste amazing and cuts down on the "sweetness level" especially when royal icing is used to decorate the cookie. It is almost always stocked in the baking aisle near the other extracts.
Gel food color - gel color is preferred over liquid to achieve a bolder color while reducing excess moisture into the batter.
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Nutrition Information
Yield
24Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 94Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 18mgSodium 62mgCarbohydrates 13gFiber 0gSugar 6gProtein 1g
This information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although indulgewithmimi.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.
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