It’s the middle of winter and the weather here in Pittsburgh is supposed to remain very cold this weekend. It’s a good day to stay home and bake! These chocolate and pink sugar cookies are a welcome treat for cold snowy days and a great idea if you feel like baking something sweet for someone special! I like baking them for Valentine’s day but these cut-out cookies are a perfect choice for a birthday treat or a just because day. The frosting can be colored any color or left pure white.
But since it’s February 14th, I baked this batch with pink icing today.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Sugar cookies are an easy cookie to bake requiring only a few ingredients and this chocolate version is no exception. Creaming butter and brown sugar, adding a couple of eggs and vanilla, then finishing with flour and dutch cocoa is the first step. Chill the dough while cleaning up and preparing the simple pink frosting. Once the dough has chilled enough so it’s not too sticky to roll, you’re ready to start.
Roll the dough about 1/4 inch thick. These cookies don’t rise much during baking so what you put on the cookie sheet is what you’ll get after baked. Cut out 10 large heart cookies and place on lightly greased (or parchment paper lined if you have it) cookie sheet. These will be the “bottoms” of the cookie sandwiches. Then cut out another 10 large heart cookies, this time use your smaller heart cookie cutter and cut out the middle. These will be the “tops” of the cookie sandwiches. Save the middle mini hearts to bake if you like, baking on a separate cookie sheet.
I roll out 10 cookies at a time to make sure I have enough dough for both bottoms and tops.
The mini chocolate hearts are the middle of the cut-out of the tops of the cookies. I bake those too, but be sure to bake about 3 minutes less and on a separate cookie sheet. The smaller cookies can be enjoyed plain as is or topped with frosting too. I love having a few with a glass of red wine. Chocolate and red wine, yes! But I bet kids of any age would love a few with a glass of milk too.
Come to think of it, this cookie recipe could be a fun activity for the kids! Have the cookies baked and then help them frost the cookies and assemble with tops. You don’t have to use any decorating skills to frost these cookies as the top heart covers any messiness and I think the “ooze” of frosting at the sides looks delicious!
So don’t be afraid to pile on the icing!
Use whatever heart cookie cutters you have. I love this Wilton 2 pc cutter from years ago that I bought at Michaels craft store. We used it for years in the cookie biz and have baked thousands of cookies with it and it still looks new. But today I also used 2 regular heart cutters, one large for the bottom, then rolled again using the smaller heart cutter to cut out the middle. Bake the top and the bottom on separate cookie sheets as the tops will bake more quickly.
Save the middle heart you cut out with the smaller cutter and bake them also for quick mini hearts. You can enjoy 3 mini cookies at a time and not feel quilty!
As you can see, my hearts are not perfectly matched. But hey, they look homemade and when it comes to cookies that is a good thing. I used a lot of frosting on the bottom cookie, enough so the frosting will still be high enough to peek through the top cookie.
Notice the powdered sugar sprinkle on top of the cookie? I love this step as it really presents the cookie well. I have a wonderful shaker that I normally use for powdered sugar, but could not find it today! So I used a sifter, adding the powdered sugar to the sifter and shaking over the cookies. One helpful hint if you are planning on serving the cookies and want the best appearance, wait for a few hours prior to serving the cookies before sprinkling with powdered sugar for the prettiest looking cookies.
Another hint I highly recommend is to use a non-melting powdered sugar. I buy mine from King Arthur flour, it works so well, we shipped our cookies nationwide at the cookie bakery with it and they always held up beautifully. Oh, I miss those days. Kind of. ?
I’m hoping you all enjoy a bit of sweetness on this Valentine’s Day. Happy Baking!
- 1 pound butter (2 cups)
- 1 pound brown sugar (2 cups, packed)
- 2 whole large eggs
- 1 TBL pure vanilla
- 1 pound 4 ounces all purpose flour (4½ cups)
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 ounces dutch cocoa (1/2 cup)
- FROSTING:
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 4 TBL melted butter
- 1 tsp pure vanilla
- Milk as needed to thin
- red or pink food coloring
- Cream softened butter and brown sugar.
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
- Mix flour, cocoa and salt in separate bowl, then add gradually stir in.
- Dough will be sticky. Chill until easy to roll, usually one hour will be ok.
- Roll chocolate cookie dough ¼ inch thick, cut out using heart cookie cutters. For the tops of cookies, use the same cookie cutter, then use a smaller one to cut out the middle for the "top". Place on cookie sheet greased or use parchment paper. Bake in 350 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Bake 7 to 8 minutes for "tops" of hearts.
- Cool on rack then cool.
- FROSTING:
- Cream together powdered sugar, melted butter and vanilla. Thin to desired consistency with milk.
- After mixing together frosting using only a touch of red or pink food coloring, top each sugar heart with a generous portion of icing, building it up slightly in the middle. Complete sandwich with the top of the cookie and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
*You can also save the cut-out mini hearts and bake them too! Take a few minutes off your bake time for them also.
*I use a strainer to sprinkle powdered sugar on top of the cookie.
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