Valentine Heart Cookies

These adorable bite-sized cookies are bound to be a complete hit! They look stunning all on their own, but are perfect for gift giving to your favourite valentine! Valentine Heart Cookies are prepared with a basic butter and sugar cookie, rolled in pink sugar, and topped with a chocolate heart!

Every year, I try to publish a recipe or two for each occasion and Valentine’s Day is no exception. This year, I’m so happy with these Valentine Heart Cookies. Valentine’s Day recipes are all about pinks and reds for me. And, if you take a look back at valentine-inspired recipes from previous years, you’ll certainly see the red and pink trend.

This particular recipe came to mind when I was thinking about how to use up my chocolate hearts. Aren’t they cute? They are actually heart-shaped chocolate chips, but they’re a tad bit larger than a regular chocolate chip. And, they’re made by Hershey’s so I knew they would bake up quite nicely. I love making cookies that are simple and pretty, and that can be packed into bags or boxes for gift-giving. These particular cookies hold up quite well to being packed up and delivered.

As a food blogger, I’m always way ahead of the game though when it comes to food. For example, you’ll most likely read this recipe post a few days before Valentine’s Day, but I baked and photographed these cookies in January. It was during my Strawberry Shortcake series, and we were on a sugar overload. I packed these cute cookies up just like you see here in the photos and John dropped them off to the neighbouring kids.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE:

• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature! To be perfectly honest, I have made these with both salted and unsalted butter and there’s no difference in taste or appearance once all is said and done. Use what you have on hand.
• Sugar – Sugar will caramelize when baked, which will help to brown cookies and cakes.  In cookies, the sugar will help the dough to spread, and will create a crispness to the bottom of the cookie.
• Eggs – Actually, you’ll only need the yolks. Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
• Vanilla Extract – Probably the most common extract and the most common flavouring used in cakes and cookies.  
• Flour – No need for anything special. Just use regular all-purpose flour. I have not tried this recipe with any other type of flour.
• Sanding Sugar – Coarse sugar, sometimes referred to as sanding sugar, is used sometimes for decorative purposes.  It is sometimes called pearl sugar or coarse baking sugar.
• Hershey Chocolate Heart Chips

SANDING VS GRANULATED SUGAR

I use coarse sanding sugar quite a bit, so I hope it hasn’t been too difficult for you to find. Sanding sugar is sometimes referred to as baking sugar, and there are some substitutes.

You can use other sugars – which are basically the same, but named something differently – there’s pearl sugar and coarse sugar. You cannot, however, use granulated sugar. Let me explain why. Whereas an individual granule of sanding sugar is large and hard, a single granule of granulated sugar is quite small. Sanding sugar will hold up to the heat in your oven without melting; granulated sugar will not.

If you can only find granulated sugar, you can either skip the coating in sugar step, or you can use turbinado sugar. Turbinado sugar is a golden brown though, so it will throw off the colour of your finished cookie.

If you can only find granulated sugar, I’m afraid this recipe is not right for you. You can find sanding sugars online, but they tend to be more expensive online. If you’re in Canada, go to your local Bulk Barn or your local baking supply store. They have lots of different colours and the price is much, much lower.

HOW TO MAKE VALENTINE HEART COOKIES

So, let’s get started! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set it aside. Next, in a mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the egg yolks and vanilla extract. Beat to combine. Now, add the flour and mix into the butter mixture until just combined. Don’t over mix!

Portion into one teaspoon amounts and roll into balls. Roll each ball into the sanding sugar and place on the prepared baking sheet. Place a single heart-shaped chocolate chips onto each cookie and gently, but firmly, push it into the rolled cookie dough so that it sticks.

Bake for 11 minutes. Remove from oven and allow cookie to cool on the baking sheet for 3-5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.

CAN’T FIND CHOCOLATE HEART CHIPS?

To be quite honest, any baking chocolate will do, but it has to be baking chocolate. You can’t push a regular milk chocolate heart into the cookie dough and bake it for eleven minutes. Not all chocolate is made to stand that type of heat. You might be left with a melted chocolate mess. Jumbo milk chocolate chips will work; your chocolate chips don’t need to be heart shaped.

You could also use candy coated chocolate like M&Ms. Pick out the red and pink M&Ms to use on your cookies and you can eat the rest. I know there are Valentine-themed M&Ms that you can get too, so that would be a great substitute.

If you are unable to find red or pink M&Ms, you can use your favourite brand of candy coated chocolate. I would consider using Smarties (if you’re in Canada; they are not the same in the United States!) You could use regular M&Ms, and even the peanut ones will do. The center will just be bigger, obviously. And, you don’t have to use valentine colours either if you have used pink sanding sugar. You could use white chocolate, for example!

EAT THEM, SHARE THEM, OR GIVE THEM AS A GIFT!

It’s really no secret that I love to bake cookies. Seriously, I baked a lot of cookies! You can see a complete list of them here. Honestly, 90% of all the cookies I prepare for Lord Byron’s Kitchen, do not stay in our home. McKenna used to take them to school, and John.e used to take them to work. But, with working from home and home-schooling, so much for that! Now, I just give them to our neighbours.

Because there are so many cookies, John.e will often suggest making them smaller. I think that he thinks if they are smaller he would be eating less sugar. But, let’s face it, he would just eat two or three of the smaller cookies in place of one regular sized cookie! This time, I decided to give it a go. I’m so glad I did, because I was able to keep these Valentine Heart Cookies small. They are the perfect one-bite size!