Description
Delight your Valentine with these charming Slice and Bake Heart Cookies featuring a vibrant pink and red tinted dough layered for a beautiful marbled effect. These buttery, soft sugar cookies are coated in pink and white sprinkles and perfect for gifting or sharing on special occasions.
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
Additional Ingredients
- Red gel food coloring
- 1/2-1 cup Pink and white jimmy sprinkles
Instructions
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a small bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and fine sea salt. Set aside for later use.
- Cream Butter and Sugar: In a mixing bowl, cream the unsalted European butter and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, which takes about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.
- Add Wet Ingredients: Mix in the large egg, egg yolk, heavy cream, and vanilla bean paste to the creamed butter and sugar until well combined.
- Combine Flour Mixture: Gradually add the dry flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined to form a dough.
- Color and Chill Dough: Divide the dough into two portions, leaving about half (around 375-400 grams) in the bowl. Add red gel food coloring to the divided portion and mix until the desired shade of pink or red is achieved. Roll this tinted dough between two sheets of parchment paper to about 1/2 inch thickness and freeze for 10 minutes while covering the plain dough with plastic wrap and setting it aside at room temperature.
- Cut Heart Shapes: Use a 1 1/2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut hearts from the chilled red dough. Reroll any scraps once and continue cutting hearts. Lightly dab water on the center of each heart and stack them, pressing gently to adhere, forming a log approximately 9–10 inches long on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Freeze Heart Log: Freeze the stacked heart log for at least 30 minutes until firm to facilitate handling.
- Wrap with Plain Dough: Remove the heart log from the freezer. Wrap the remaining plain dough around the heart log carefully, ensuring no gaps remain. Then wrap the entire log in plastic wrap and gently roll it into a smooth log shape.
- Chill Dough Log: Chill the wrapped dough log in the refrigerator for at least 2 to 3 hours or overnight for best results.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Cookies: When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C). Remove the dough log from the fridge and roll it in the pink and white jimmies sprinkles to coat.
- Slice and Bake: Slice the decorated dough log into roughly 1/2-inch thick cookies. Place the cookies on a lined baking sheet about 1 inch apart. Bake for 10 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly golden and the tops appear matte. For a crispier texture, bake for up to 12 minutes.
- Cool Cookies: Transfer the baked cookies to a wire rack and allow them to cool completely before serving or storing.
Notes
- Measure your dry ingredients properly using the spoon and level method or a kitchen scale to ensure accurate flour amounts for perfect cookie texture.
- Use cool room temperature butter (64-68°F) to prevent overly soft dough and ensure proper creaming.
- You can use any type of sprinkles such as sanding sugar, jimmies, pearls, or a mixture for coating the cookie logs before slicing.
- Slice cookies thinner (about 1/4 inch) if you prefer crispier cookies instead of soft ones.
- Red gel food coloring provides vibrant color without altering dough consistency – add gradually to reach your desired hue.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 150 kcal
- Sugar: 9 g
- Sodium: 90 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Saturated Fat: 5 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 18 g
- Fiber: 0.5 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 40 mg
