Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies
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Your day, whether it’s Valentine’s Day or not, will start to look a whole lot sweeter with these heart shaped cookies! These are made with a delightful sugar cookie base with a simple, scrumptious icing that you can decorate however your heart desires!
How cute are these?! I mean, come on!! They’re impossibly cute and even sweeter to eat!
Whoever you’re making these heart-warming, heart shaped sugar cookies for, they’ll feel all the love in the air and in their tummies! This recipe makes 36 warm and tender sugar cookies, so let’s get to it!
Outside of these ingredients to make the sugar cookies and icing, you will need a cookie cutter in the shape of a heart. If you don’t have a heart shaped cookie cutter you can try free-hand forming the cookies using a sharp knife.
For the cookies:
- Butter: You can use unsalted butter for this recipe. You’ll need ¾ cups at room temperature.
- Granulated sugar: 1 cup of granulated sugar will do the trick, giving these cookies their “sugar” cookie name. You can use caster sugar, raw sugar, or brown sugar if you don’t have granulated sugar in your pantry.
- Large eggs: The eggs will act as a binding agent to bring the dough together nicely. You’ll 2 large eggs.
- Other ingredients: Vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt.
For the icing:
- Powdered sugar: This is the base of your icing, so you’ll need 3 cups. It will look incredibly dry at first, but with the added milk and corn syrup will form a nice icing-like texture.
- Milk: Add 2 tablespoons to bring the powdered sugar together.
- Light corn syrup: 1 tablespoon of light corn syrup will do. It’s best to use light corn syrup for a moderately sweet taste and no added color. Using dark corn syrup will change the color of the icing.
- Pink food coloring: You can get food coloring in the baking aisle of most grocery stores. We like pink, but you can use any color you like!
- Sprinkles: The fun part! Use sprinkles for decorating, or take a peek at the section below for other ideas for decorating!
The sugar cookies and icing come together quickly and make delicate, perfect little bites. You can make them by hand or use a stand mixer. Here’s how you can make heart shaped cookies at home:
Make the cookies:
- Prep the wet ingredients: In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
- Combine the dry ingredients: Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. Now, add them to the wet ingredients and mix till combined.
- Let the cookie dough rest: Form the dough into a ball and wrap it before placing it in your fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Make hearts: Using a cookie cutter, cut out heart shapes and transfer the cookies to a baking sheet.
- Bake & cool: Bake the cookies until they’re lightly browned on the bottom. Then, let them cool completely.
Make the icing:
- Combine the ingredients: Add the powdered sugar, milk, and light corn syrup and mix.
- Add your colors: Divide the icing between two small bowls. Add a few drops of pink food coloring to one bowl and leave the other bowl white.
- Dip the cookies: When the cookies are completely cool, you can ice them by dipping them into the icing.
- Decorate: Wait about 1 minute so the icing isn’t too wet and then add sprinkles and decorations!
- Icing pour over: pouring the icing over the cookies will save you hours of fussy decorating and make you feel like a crafty Pinterest goddesses of Valentine’s cuteness. This technique makes the icing super smooth. Thank you to Cookies and Cups for teaching us this method!
- Drizzle: You can create a two-tone effect by doing an icing pour over with one color icing, waiting for it to dry completely and then drizzling the other color icing on top. You can also achieve this look with a chocolate drizzle – all you have to do is melt some chocolate chips!
- Sprinkles: this just levels up the fun! You can use Valentine’s sprinkles or whatever sprinkles you have on hand to add some razzle-dazzle!
- Marble icing: To achieve a marble effect, separate your white icing into 3 parts. Add food coloring to two of the bowls and mix until each bowl has a uniform color. Drizzle the two colors of icing over the white icing and drag a skewer or toothpick through it to create a swirl or colours. Dip each cookie into the icing and get a sweet marble design!
These are just some ideas, you can get creative with your decorations and go with whatever your heart and tummy desire! You can’t really go wrong!
Heart Shaped Sugar Cookies Recipe
Your day, whether it's Valentine's Day or not, will start to look a whole lot sweeter with these heart shaped cookies! These are made with a delightful sugar cookie base with a simple, scrumptious icing that you can decorate however your heart desires!
Ingredients
- ¾ cups butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
Icing
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- A few drops of red and pink food colour
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for one more minute.¾ cups butter, 1 cup granulated sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a medium-sized bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and mix till combined.2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt
- Make a ball out of the dough, wrap it in parchment paper or wax paper, and put it into your fridge for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Roll out half the dough to just under ½ inch thick between 2 pieces of parchment paper. Cut out heart shapes and transfer the cookies to a baking sheet.
- Bake on cookie sheets for 6-8 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom. Remove from oven and cool completely.
Icing
- In a medium-sized bowl, Add the powdered sugar, milk, and light corn syrup. Mix well, adding a little extra milk if needed. The icing should be pourable but still thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (or a cookie!)2 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon light corn syrup, 3 cups powdered sugar
- Divide the icing between 2 shallow bowls. Add a few drops of pink to one bowl and leave the other bowl white.A few drops of red and pink food colour
- When the cookies are completely cool, it's time to ice them. Working with one cookie at a time, dip the cookies into the icing so that one side is completely coated. Set it aside on a cooling rack.
- Wait about 1 minute so the icing isn't too wet and then add sprinkles. Make sure that the icing has hardened completely before storing the cookies.Sprinkles
Nutrition
Serving: 1 cookie, Calories: 131kcal (7%), Carbohydrates: 22g (7%), Protein: 1g (2%), Fat: 4g (6%), Saturated Fat: 3g (19%), Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 1g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 21mg (7%), Sodium: 91mg (4%), Potassium: 18mg (1%), Fiber: 1g (4%), Sugar: 15g (17%), Vitamin A: 133IU (3%), Vitamin C: 1mg (1%), Calcium: 14mg (1%), Iron: 1mg (6%)
We have thoroughly tested this recipe for accuracy. However, individual results may vary. See our full recipe disclosure here.
Aren’t these cookies the cutest! Love this shade of pink, so perfect for valentines day!
Perfectly delicious cookies and so pretty. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!