Slice and Bake Heart Cookies - Crowded Kitchen (2024)

Why We Love This Recipe

• Nostalgic: When I was a kid, I used to love those cookies in a tube that had holiday designs on them. These cookies bring back those memories, and taste even better!
• Fun process: These cookies take a bit of time (mostly just chilling), but it's so much fun to see your cookies come together, especially when you begin slicing them before baking. It's a super fun activity to do with your friends, family, or children.
• Taste great: These cookies taste as good as they look. They're soft and chewy, with just a little bit of crunch on the bottom. You won't be able to eat just one, trust me!

Ingredients

Here's what you'll need to make these heart cookies:

Ingredient Notes

• Natural food coloring: You'll need this to make the heart part of this cookie. We used this natural food coloring that's made from vegetable juices. You won't get a vibrant red color, but you can achieve a nice pink/purple hue.
• Butter: Make sure your butter is softened to room temperature before making these cookies. We used unsalted butter, so be sure to use less salt than the recipe calls for if you use salted butter.
• Flour: We used regular all-purpose flour in this recipe. Be sure to add flour to your measuring cup with a spoon and level it out. This is the correct way to measure, and if you skimp on the process, your cookies might be too dry.
• Heart cookie cutter: Our cookie cutter is about 1.5 inches across. This is the set we have – we used one of the smallest sizes. We use the larger sizes for regular cookies.

Step-by-step Instructions

STEP 1: Add butter, sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl (or stand mixer). Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

STEP 2: Add in eggs one at a time, mixing just until combined.

STEP 3:In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

STEP 4: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3-4 batches, until the dough comes together. Add 1-2 tablespoon more flour if needed if the dough is too wet.

STEP 5: Remove about ½-2/3 of the dough and set aside. Add several drops of food coloring to the remaining dough and mix until combined. Add more food coloring to reach desired hue.

STEP 6: Place the pink dough in the freezer for 5 minutes, then roll out into a rectangle about ½-inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Return to the freezer for 15-20 minutes. This will make it much easier to cut out the hearts without ruining their shape.

STEP 7: Use a small heart cookie cutter (roughly 1.5" across) to cut out hearts. Dip a finger in a little bit of water and lightly rub on the floured side of the cookie before adhering another heart.

This helps them stick together, but don’t overdo the water, you only need a tiny amount. Repeat with all hearts until you have a log about 10 inches long.

STEP 8: Return the log to the freezer for about 30 minutes, or until frozen solid. Remove from freezer and press the plain cookie dough directly onto and around the hearts. Make sure to really press it in so you don’t end up with any gaps. Roll into a smooth log.

STEP 9: Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

STEP 10: Preheat oven to 350˚F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

STEP 11: When you’re ready to bake, slice the dough into ¼” rounds, then space 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake for ~12 minutes, or until the bottoms are light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Expert Tips and FAQs

• Chill your colored dough. If you want your hearts to be well-defined, you'll need to chill the pink dough in the freezer for about 15 minutes. If the dough is too soft, it will be nearly impossible to get the hearts out of the cookie cutter without destroying their shape. You'll also need to freeze your "log" of hearts after sticking them together to make sure the shape stays in tact when you add the uncolored dough to the sides. Don't skip the chilling process - it's essential to make sure these turn out perfectly!
• Don't refrigerate the plain dough. You want it to be super soft so and pliable so it's easy to adhere to the hearts.
• Want to make this recipe vegan? Try our vegan sugar cookie dough, but use this process for shaping and baking.
• You can make these cookies for any holiday by applying the same process to other shapes: ghosts for halloween, Christmas trees for Christmas, etc. Just make sure you use a cookie cutter that's big enough where you'll be able to see the design clearly!
• If you want to eat the raw dough relatively safely, you'll need to bake the flour to pasteurize it, and also use pasteurized eggs. You can also make these cookie dough bites.
• Measuring your flour: Be sure your spoon your flour into a measuring cup and level it off. This will prevent you from using too much flour, which will dry out your cookie dough and make it difficult to shape.
• You can keep the dough in the freezerfor up to a few months (as long as it's tightly wrapped) so you can enjoy slice and bake cookies at any time! Let the dough thaw at room temperature for about 15 minutes before slicing and baking.

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