Description
These Valentine's Slice and Bake Heart Cookies are charming, buttery treats perfect for celebrating love. Featuring a tender, lightly sweetened dough, they’re tinted with red gel food coloring, layered with a vanilla bean flavor, and coated with pink and white sprinkles for a festive touch. The slice-and-bake method makes preparation easy, with beautifully stacked heart shapes wrapped in a smooth dough log, ready for slicing and baking into adorable cookies.
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
Wet Ingredients
- 14 tablespoons unsalted European butter, cool room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
- Red gel food coloring (quantity as needed for desired shade)
Decorations
- 1/2 to 1 cup pink and white jimmy sprinkles
Instructions
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set this mixture aside for later use.
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy, approximately 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.
- Add Wet Ingredients: Add the egg, egg yolk, heavy cream, and vanilla bean paste to the creamed butter and sugar. Mix until fully incorporated.
- Combine with Dry Ingredients: Gradually add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, mixing until just combined and a soft dough forms.
- Divide and Tint Dough: Divide the dough roughly in half, keeping about half (375-400 grams) in the bowl. Add red gel food coloring to this portion and mix until it reaches your desired pink or red shade.
- Roll and Freeze Colored Dough: Roll the colored dough between two sheets of parchment paper to about 1/2 inch thickness. Freeze for 10 minutes to firm up.
- Cut Heart Shapes: Using a 1 1/2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut hearts from the chilled colored dough. Re-roll scraps and cut additional hearts as needed.
- Stack and Freeze Hearts: Lightly dab the center of each heart with water and stack them to form a single layered log approximately 9 to 10 inches long on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Freeze for at least 30 minutes until firm.
- Wrap in Plain Dough: Remove the heart log from the freezer. Wrap the remaining plain dough around the heart log, covering all gaps. Wrap the combined log in plastic wrap and roll it smoothly.
- Chill Dough Log: Refrigerate the wrapped dough log for at least 2 to 3 hours or overnight to chill fully and prepare for slicing.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare for Baking: When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Unwrap the chilled dough log and roll it gently in the pink and white sprinkles to coat the surface.
- Slice and Arrange Cookies: Slice the dough log into approximately 1/2-inch thick cookies. Place the slices on a lined baking sheet, spacing them adequately.
- Bake Cookies: Bake the cookies for 12 minutes until the bottoms are lightly golden and the tops appear matte. For crispier cookies, bake slightly longer while monitoring closely.
- Cool Cookies: Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a wire rack before serving or storing.
Notes
- Measure dry ingredients properly using the spoon-level method or a kitchen scale to ensure accuracy.
- Keep butter cool but not too hard—ideally between 64-68°F for optimal dough texture.
- You can substitute sprinkles with sanding sugar, pearls, or any preferred decorative topping.
- For crispier cookies, slice the dough thinner, about 1/4 inch thick, before baking.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 180 kcal
- Sugar: 11 g
- Sodium: 90 mg
- Fat: 9 g
- Saturated Fat: 5 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 22 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 45 mg
