Every so often, I try to do responsible things like Plan Ahead to reap the rewards that should come with it like A Calm and Unfrazzled Week and I fail almost 100% of the time in the service of Something More Fun I Just Thought Of. Crispy salad? Castle breakfast? Sorry, guys, you’ve been jettisoned for some really adorable cookies I impulsively made last week. I am nothing if not predictable.
We start with a great sablé cookie dough. I love sablés because they’re buttery and light, but have a gentle snap and aren’t too sweet. I use the same cookie as a base for the recent Checkerboard Cookies. There it’s reengineered to be half chocolate, half vanilla. Here, we divided it into 1/3 and 2/3 portions. The smaller part, the 1/3, is tinted — you could use one color or marble two together — rolled out thickly between two sheets of parchment paper, and cut into as many small hearts as you can get. The cutouts are stacked to form a heart-shaped log and frozen so they hold their shape. Once solid, we smoosh the remaining untinted dough around the inner log of hearts to form an outer log that’s round, or round enough. Freeze it again until the cookie doughs are merged and solid, and once sliced thin and rolled in sugar, the cookies that emerge look absolutely mechanical in their precision, even if you are as haphazard about it as I am.
A few more notes:
- Origin: I did not invent this technique and am not sure who might have. I’ve seen it around Pinterest and YouTube for over a decade, although usually with cakes, not cookies.
- Shapes: You can embed any shape in a cookie you like with it. Green clovers! Purple diamonds! Christmas trees, red/white/blue stars, or spring flowers. I hope to add more photos to this post in future seasons as I switch up the theme.
- Colors: I’m using a few gel food colors, adding a drop of one or another to get the shades I wanted. I suspect someone will ask me whether one could use powdered freeze-dried fruit to tint and flavor the cookies and I’d say yes. I haven’t tested it here, but when I’ve done it in other cookies and cakes, I find the color and flavor a little muted, but it does work visually. Strawberries or raspberries make a nice pink; blueberries will make a shade of purple.
- Yield: The amount below makes a small amount of cookies (just over two dozen) and you’ll absolutely want to double it because you’ll want to share them with everyone because this cookie is a rare thing, a unicorn: even more delicious than it looks.
Something new!
I’ve created a shopping page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I’m asked about the most. For each item, I’ve attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we’re not just focusing on one giant retailer. The last link for each item is for “More stores” and if you follow it, it will take you to a page with two lists: the first is kitchen supply and cookware stores that ship domestically, and the second is independent bookstores that ship domestically. Right now, I’ve just compiled the 12 things I use the most, but I’ll be adding more as I notice requests for links to the items. This page has been a long time in the making because we wanted to get it exactly right and I hope you find it helpful! [Smitten Kitchen Shop]
Previously
6 months ago: Baked Farro with Summer Vegetables
1 year ago: Baked Feta with Tomatoes and Chickpeas
2 year ago: New Classic Wedding Cake + How-To
3 years ago: Bodega-Style Egg-and-Cheese Sandwich
4 year ago: Stromboli and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookies
5 years ago: Guacamole and Broccoli Pizza
6 years ago: Banana Puddings with Vanilla Bean Wafers and Taco Torte
7 years ago: Charred Cauliflower Quesadillas and Chocolate Oat Crumble
8 years ago: Garlicky Party Bread with Herbs and Cheese and Fennel and Blood Orange Salad
9 years ago: Egg Salad with Pickled Celery and Coarse Dijon and Salted Caramel Brownies
10 years ago: Cheddar, Beer, and Mustard Pull-Apart Bread
11 years ago: Roast Chicken with Dijon Sauce and Mushroom and Farro Soup and Meatball Subs with Caramelized Onions
12 years ago: Mixed Citrus Salad with Feta and Mint and Edna Mae’s Sour Cream Pancakes and New York Deli Rye Bread
13 years ago: Flaky Blood Orange Tart and Warm Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad
14 years ago: Rigatoni with Eggplant Puree and Matzo Ball Soup and Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Squares
15 years ago: Miniature Soft Pretzels and Sour Cream Bran Muffins
Sweetheart Sablés
- 2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (40 grams) powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) fine sea or table salt
- 1 cup (8 ounces or 225 grams) unsalted butter, diced (cold is fine, at room temp if using a handmixer)
- 1 teaspoon (5 grams) vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, separated
- Food coloring, to tint
- Colored sugar, to finish
Make dough in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer: Combine butter, sugars, and salt in a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer and beat until creamy. If you began with cold butter in a stand mixer, this will take a couple minutes and require you to scrape down the bowl a few times. Once mixture is thoroughly combined, add egg yolk (save the egg white for later) and vanilla and beat until combined. Add flour and beat until it disappears into a smooth dough.
Both methods: Divide dough into 2/3 and 1/3 portions. [The total dough weighs about 615 grams; 2/3 will weight 410 grams; 1/3 will weigh 205 grams.] Cover the larger potion loosely with plastic so it doesn’t dry out and leave it at room temperature. Tint the smaller portion a color of your choice, or divide it again [100 grams each] and tint it two different colors. To marble two colors back together, place large pinches of dough in a rough checkerboard pattern on a piece of parchment paper. Use the parchment to fold this dough mess in half once and pat it back flat. Repeat in a second direction, folding and patting flat, for further marbling. Err on the side of under-marbling, as the colors will be further chopped and mixed in the next step.
Form hearts: Roll tinted dough between two pieces of parchment paper. You can go fairly thick here [1/4 to 1/2-inch], as long as you can still comfortably cut shapes out. Slide parchment onto a board or plate, so it’s solid underneath, and transfer the board and dough to the freezer until the dough is firm, about 5 to 10 minutes.
Remove top sheet of parchment and place it gently back on the slab of cold dough. Flip dough onto this loosened paper and peel back and remove what is now the top sheet. Save the top parchment; we will use it. Cut tinted slab into as many 1-inch hearts as you can. Stack them on top of each other, pressing them gently so they adhere. Once you’ve cut as many as you can, place this heart-shaped column on the spare piece of parchment, and slide it back into the freezer until solid, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the heart column from the freezer and use the parchment to give it a few extra presses, making sure the hearts are adhered to each other.
Form final cookie log: Use the remaining untinted cookie dough to wrap the heart column. I found it easiest to make several coils the length of the heart column and press and smooth them onto it. Once the heart column is fully wrapped in untinted dough, roll it in parchment to smooth the sides and pressed tightly against the center column. Freeze this log until solid, 30 minutes.
Slice and bake the cookies: Heat oven to 350°F (175°C). Lightly beat the reserved egg white until loose. Unwrap the chilled log of cookie dough and brush it with egg white. Pour color sugar or sugars of your choice on a small rimmed plate for dipping. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Gently cut the log into just shy of 1/4-inch slices. Roll the edges of each cookie slice in the colored sugar(s) and arrange on the baking sheet, 1 inch apart.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until golden brown underneath. Let cool on baking sheet for 1 minute, then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.
Do ahead: Baked, cooled cookies keep for 3 weeks in a tin at room temperature. The log of dough will keep, well-wrapped, in the freezer for 1 to 2 months. I’d wrap it in parchment then 1 to 2 layers of plastic.
That looks amazing, but now I need to know what a castle breakfast is! Do that next?
100%. I might even eke it out over the weekend, but I also might nap. 🤣
Please do! When I google it I get White Castle breakfast 🧐. Pretty sure that’s not what you mean🙂
I’m pretty sure it’s scones or soda bread and other things to make an Irish inspired continental breakfast. I love a proper continental breakfast with sliced veggies, cheese, cured meats, hard boiled eggs, and bread, not to be confused with the continental breakfast I grew up with at American hotels that’s all sad pastries covered in gloop and dry scrambled eggs. At least I hope that’s what castle breakfast is…
Thank you for including a link to Surfas on your shopping page. I’ve been shopping at Surfas (in person) for many years. It’s a great store; quality products and friendly staff.
I’ve been reminded that the Superbowl is Sunday and possibly not the best day for a breakfast plan. I’ll have it up within a week or two!
castle breakfast is on her personal Instagram (frequently on the stories)! We will have to be patient for this crispy salad ;)
Very fun recipe! They are quite sweet for me, but no complaints from the kids. Thr decorating sugar at the edges melted and spread a little, so mine weren’t as neat as the pictures, but still pretty.
Just made these for my son to take to school. SO CUTE! Worth all the steps and they really look great. I will definitely use this method again. Thanks Deb!
I love that you’re not just providing Amazon links!! Thank you!!
Agreed! Thanks for doing it the harder way. Speaking of which… I would find it really useful if there were a few sentences about what you use the items for and why you love the one you picked. Like the spatula for instance- I have never seen or used one like yours.
Thanks. It was too much to also include an explanation of each item at this time, but I’m happy to answer. You will stop using all other spatulas, aside from a small offset, when you get a flexible (sometimes called flexible fish) spatula. It’s thin but firm and can pick up things without messing them up. I use it for roasted vegetables, cookies, pancakes, everything.
This is an interesting technique. Other than using the untinted dough more efficiently, how does it compare to rolling out the untinted dough, cutting it into rounds, cutting a heart out of each round, and then inserting a tinted heart into the cutout? Is one significantly harder or easier than the other?
I think this would lead to handling a lot more dough, and possibly needing to double this recipe unless you’d be using the untinted heart cutouts, re-combining them, tinting them, and re-rolling.
yes, it’s probably not possible to re-roll a multi-color dough without losing a lot of the variegation
I’m so glad you posted this because I’ve been thinking about the pictures you shared of it last week and grabbed some freeze dried strawberries today for just this reason. It’s kismet! Can’t wait to try them!
I loved watching your tiktok video of this cookie!
OOhh, I was just wondering if there was a video! I just went to check out the tiktok! Thanks for the tip about where to find the video.
Okay, so I’m wondering: could I make a log of colored dough and indent it the whole length so it looks kinda sorta like a stack of hearts? (In other words, can I embrace the slapdash and avoid the cookie cutter?) Maybe not as beautiful, but a B effort? Let me know if anyone tries this…..
I haven’t done it with this dough, but yes, it works, albeit yes, wonky in proportion to your wonkiness. :-) It’s best if you can figure out some way of making a long, rigid shape that is the same as the top of your heart (i.e. cardboard covered in foil, sharply folded along its length and then curved backwards) that you can keep pressing the dough against; if you could get the lengths on the cardboard right, you could probably just shape the rest of the heart by curving the cardboard farther around until it meets itself, but if not, the heart’s point is easier to do by hand than the heart’s top.
(the other way is to carve rather than press – make a log that’s in the shape of an equilateral triangle all the way along, chill it hard, carve off two of the points from the top side of the triangular log all the way along the log’s length, cut a little triangle into the middle of the top side of the log all the way along the log’s length, and there you go: a slightly more geometric-looking heart.)
Good luck!
I did this more or less the second I saw it on Instagram (yay for impulse baking!) I made a triangle log and smooshed one side in with a bench scraper and parchment, froze that, and smooshed room temp dough around it.
It turned out very cute, if a bit less precise than with cookie cutters.
It would work better with the 1/3 to 2/3 ratio suggested than the half and half I did. I followed the checkerboard cookie recipe. (insta picture linked)
Yay! Thank you for this! Very excited to make these this weekend for Valentines AND love that I can use this in the future for other holidays so easily.
I made these tonight and they look and taste wonderful. Directions are clear and easy to follow. Mine were done at 11 minutes. I didn’t have a heart-shaped cookie cutter, so it was a little bit more time-consuming as I used an Xacto knife and a paper template. Well worth the extra effort. Thank you!
This is art
Yay for the shop!!
Do you have a favorite spatula/scraper (you know for scraping down bowls while making cookies or cakes)?!
I just so love what you do here. And how you do it.
Thank you.
Currently, I do not, but this is about as close as I’ve found to what I like.
Link??
Click the word “this”.
Made these yesterday and they are delicious- especially with coffee the next morning.
So fun to make- and not hard, although I accidentally made them twice as big as they were supposed to be. Oops. :)
Inspired by another commenter, I halved dough and tinted one half red, then I cut out rounds. I then cut a heart from the center of each round and placed the red hearts inside the white cookie and vice versa. I am not sure if this is easier or harder than Deb’s version, but I know that I have a hard time getting nice rounded shape if I try encasing the hearts in dough. In any case, this was a great inspiration and I just love this sugar cookie recipe!
Just seeing this photo brightened my day! I felt just like the Heart-eyes emoji… Hope everyone finds a way to enjoy some sweetness this Valentine’s Day.
Has anyone asked yet how to make the center heart chocolate? ❤️ Sub some cocoa powder in for the flour maybe? Beautiful cookies, excited to try them out!
Doh, I just checked out the checkerboard cookies- question answered! 😊
To make it chocolate, you’ll want to take an approach more like the one I did for the Checkerboard Cookies in December, except here the divide is 1/3 – 2/3 and there it’s 1/2 – 1/2, so you’ll need a different amount of cocoa and flour held back. I think I’ll need more coffee before I work out the math on this!
Thanks Deb! My cookie cutter is a little bit bigger than your was, so I’m going to try the 1/2 and 1/2 recipes, and attempt to place a little bit bigger chocolate heart in a slightly smaller circle. I’ll let you know how it goes!!
Question: could you roll the entire log of dough in sprinkles and then slice, instead of slicing and then rolling each individual cookie in sprinkles?
I wondered the same thing. Seems like it would be more efficient, but maybe there is a reason it does not work. I will keep reading comments to see if it is addressed.
Deb…???
I did it that way with the Checkerboard Cookies in December so I can say with confidence I prefer this. Sugaring first seems more logical but: 1. It’s messier, slicing a log that’s wet and has sugar that moves around on it, and also tints your fingers when you do. 2. You get much better edge coverage when you roll them individually. So yes, both work, but I definitely prefer this method.
Thank you Deb!
I figured you had a logical explanation :)
Just bought a set of mini cookie cutters to make these… already looking forward to making the undyed dough chocolate and putting an orange pumkin in the middle for halloween
These hearts look so cool, I especially love the tie-dye effect.
I made something similar with my daughter over Christmas. She is obsessed with owls, so we freehand shaped owls piece by piece into a long tube and used mini M&Ms for the feet, eyes and beak after we cut them. It was quite a thing but they turned out amazing! Wish I could post a pic!
These are the cutest! My kids had fun mixing the dye into the dough, and we did their favorite colors, blue and green. Our heart cut out was a bit bigger so our cookies ended up being a bit bigger as well — so they baked for more like 13/14 minutes. We did double the recipe and were glad we did. Thanks for another wonderful recipe, the cookies are so buttery and delicious!
These tasted AMAZING. Super easy, too. This is now my go-to cookie recipe.
And inspiring in that I bought more little cookie cutter shapes …
I made these yesterday! I didn’t have the heart cutter and was too impatient to go find one, so I just tinted one half of the dough red and squished the two together in a log and rolled in red sugar. The resulting design is a kind of abstract squiggle, but still quite striking. They came together easily—this dough is so easy to work with. I can imagine that the heart cut-out process complicates things only slightly more than the squiggle method.
I’m probably rolling-out challenged, but i find it incredibly difficult to roll out very buttery doughs like this one. After struggling for a hour with rolling out and cutting out squishy hearts that refused to stay in shape, i have up and followed another commenters suggestion of shaping a triangle log and then forming it into a heart. Worked like a dream, and if our resulting hearts were slightly pointed at the edges, nobody complained:)
The cookies were delicious, as expected, abd even with our modified technique, looked wonderful.
Did you chill the dough before and after cutting out the hearts?? Glad you found a work around!
I followed this, and it worked really well! I shaped the dough into a triangle and then used a straw to create the top part of the heart. My hearts weren’t quite as defined but I was happy with them!
I made these last night and they worked very well! My heart shaped cookie cutter was too big apparently so I have a dozen very big cookies instead of 2 dozen normal sized cookies but they still look pretty and taste nice too. :)
Thank you! These are so pretty, delicious, and not very difficult. The first batch I used a 1.5×1.5 inch cookie cutter, and the final unbaked log of dough looked huge. The second time I used the smaller 1 inch sized cookie cutter. The larger cookies were 3 inches when baked (which is not actually all that huge), and the smaller ones were 2 inches when baked. I used gel food coloring, and made one batch red, and one batch pink. Such a satisfying project for a snowy Sunday morning. <3
I wonder if you have any tips for how to get such vibrant color in both the dough and the colored sugar? I used what felt like an awful lot of food coloring gel and my dough and sugar (I colored my own sugar) more were much more muted.
My basic cookie dough (undyed) is also much yellower than yours appear in the photos, and I suspect our delicious butter in Norway is the culprit there…
I probably used 3 to 6 drops but I find the gels very intense.
I just made these and they turned out great! I made the log yesterday and kept it frozen until today. I was impressed with how easily they cut. Brushing with egg white is the secret to getting the red sugar to adhere. Mine took 11-12 minutes to bake. I increased the sugar from 1/3 to 1/2 cup, and they are perfectly sweet. I used all pink for the heart. They are beautiful and delicious!
I made these today! I read the directions wrong and split the larger portion of dough in half (instead of the smaller portion), so my hearts take up the whole cookie basically. Still gorgeous!
These look great… And apologies if there’s a better place to submit this thought, but I came across a different kind of cookie today that I thought really needs the Deb treatment! They’re called Arnhemse Meisjes, and apparently were Roald Dahl’s favorite. They’re yeasted for flakiness, with no sugar in the dough; only what it’s rolled in. But the first bunch of search results have very different looks and techniques, and I love when you take on something like this, try them out, and show us the way! Any chance they tempt you, too?
Just made these and they are really beautiful. Nice buttery taste, too. I’ve made the Washington Post kaleidoscope cookies though, and would say I prefer that recipe. Those cookies didn’t spread like Deb’s, so you can fit more on a pan, and they are a sturdier cookie — I’m putting these into bags to gift for V-day, but am afraid they are going to crumble. Obviously they’ll still be delicious but still…
To be fair, sable means sandy… or crumbly.
My dough seems pretty soft…. What should the dough texture be like? I put it in the refrigerator to harden up a bit… crossing my fingers
They turned out great…didn’t have a small heart cut out so I just cut out a triangle and then squished it. Had a tiny cat cut out so used that too ;) – a light and delicate cookie- very buttery and French bakery tasting…
Soft is fine; it will firm up.
If you do ahead and freeze the fully assembled log, how long would you let it thaw for before trying to cut it? I made 2 logs last weekend that are currently in my freezer, and plan to cut & bake them next week!
I don’t have a heart cookie cutter but these were so cute that I experimented to try a method without one and they came out well! In case other readers are interested, the basic idea is to use the concept that you can make a heart from a square and two semicircles, by matching the flat parts of the semi circles to two consecutive sides of the square. How it worked – I made and colored the dough as directed. I then used the tinted portion of the dough to make two long logs, maybe 10-12 inches long. One of the logs I used a ruler to press into a long rectangle (so the cross-section is a square), the other I left round (with a circular cross section). After freezing for a few minutes, I cut the round log down the middle the long way, to make two logs each with a semi-circle cross-section. I then matched the semi-circular logs to two sides of the long square log to make a heart shaped log. I used the ruler to press together a bit and make the indent a bit more pronounced, so it essentially became a heart-shaped log. Froze and continued with the instructions from there. Final product looked good!
Ps did not marble the tinted dough as I don’t think that would work well with this method – just used one shade of red rather than two.
I made these cookies today and they are as good to look at as they are to eat, beautiful and delicious! They were easy to make and came out better then I thought they would, I followed instructions exactly. The only thing I did notice different was that when I weighed the dough it came to 700 grams or 1 1/2 lbs so I took out 1/2 lb for the colored part. They were fun to make and I know those I am sharing with will love them. Thanks Deb for the great recipe, I can’t wait to make more of them!
These are lovely. And, yes, as you promised easy enough for even my artistically limited self. Very delicate as they first come out of the oven and I ruined a few. Excellent and simple enough, though their richness (ok, also the extra steps given my one-step scoop cookie liking self) means they’ll be a rare treat.
These looked lovely and just like Deb’s before I baked them but then spread out, puffed and sank a bit. After 11 minutes they are still too soft to handle.
Shame they didn’t turn out as pictured, as they are quiet fiddly and time consuming. Also, I cut them fairly thin but still got fewer than a dozen cookies.
I tried it and while mine are not as beautiful as Deb’s they were pretty! Ihadsome raspberries languishing in my freezer so I turned my dough pink by smushing them and adding them with a tablespoon of addition flour, which worked fine by my standards.
Made these with my kids (7 and 4) on 14 Feb and they came out surprisingly well. The colourful sugar is a fun touch.
Those cookies are a thing of beauty! Like a jewel. I hope I make them :) Thanks for the shopping page and a great blog. Love checking in!!
My fiancé loves them, thank you so much Deb.
These were a great weekend project. Not that they take that long to make, but I first needed to get just the right colors in gel food dye. :) I also made red sugar for the edges from turbinado and some regular food coloring (shake in a lidded jar, then spread on a cookie sheet and dry in a very low oven for about 15 to 20 minutes).
The cookies came out looking adorable, despite the fact that I forgot to chill the tinted dough before cutting the hearts. I got about 36 cookies out of a single recipe, maybe because I cut the slices rather thin.
I really like the flavor as well, particularly on those cookies that started to get a bit brown on the edges. They remind me of those Danish butter cookies that you can buy in the blue tins.
I made these, they were lovely and vanished instantly. Im not a perfectionist… I’d say half turned out well and the others were for family use…a little imperfect. :) My heart shape cookie cutter was bigger, so I got less cookies, and they were pretty large. I would definitely double this next time…oh there will be a next time!
I needed a “project cookie” for my anxiety-baking and this was perfect. Since I must eat gluten free, my go-to flour blend with a touch more xanthum gum and making sure to chill the super soft dough between steps worked perfectly.
Flour blend: for each cup of flour I use the standard 4 1/2 oz. sift together thoroughly before proceeding with the recipe
2 oz cassava flour
1 1/2 oz toasted oat flour
1 oz tapioca starch
1/4 tsp xanthum gum
I have bold plans to make these with clovers this weekend, stash them in the freezer ready to bake, and then whip out fancy cookies when I have a newborn to make everyone confused! Thanks for the festive, make-ahead plan.
I made these on the weekend, using a scoop of freeze-dried raspberry powder and a little red gel food colour to make a dark pink heart with a nice raspberry tang. The heart shape cutter was a bit small, so had LOTS of white cookie around it, and rolled the edges in red and purple sugar like you did, Deb….so cute, and our 7 year old niece and 4 year old nephew loved them. Olivia wants to make them with me next time! Thanks as always, for your great recipes – these cookies were enjoyed by the grown-ups too. Very tasty!
LOVED these cookies! I saw the picture and immediately fell in love with how festive the looked. Made them and they tasted SO good. Its always a little touchy dying dough and rolling and chilling everything but I think it is well worth the effort! I was paranoid about the cookies becoming tough with how much I had to handle them during the dying process but they were fine. I didn’t have the right colored sanding sugar so I swapped for rainbow mini nonpareils and they looked SO cute. Wish I could share the pictures!
What is the best way to slice these so they come out evenly? My cutting was a bit sloppy and I’d like to improve next time. We LOVED these by the way!
Very cold and use a sharp serrated knife. I like to put a couple fingers over the cookie I’m slicing as I do to keep it from falling/breaking midway through the slice.
Do you think these would mail well?
Absolutely perfect sable cookie. I made these by hand instead of with a mixer and had no issues. Also replaced the centre design with one of my own choosing, so will be revisiting this recipe whenever I’m feeling creative. The different layers of cookie retained their shape and outline perfectly. Thank you!
I made these cookies for my niece and nephew (ages 7 and 4) and they loved them. I used a small scoop of freeze-dried raspberry powder plus a bit of red gel food colouring to get the hearts nice and deep pink, and the raspberry flavour was nice too. Next will try the checkerboard cookies with my best friend’s grandkids who are coming to stay with us for a couple of days.
I made these cookies in green and white for Saint Patrick’s Day. A shamrock ☘️☘️☘️ seemed impossible to pack dough around so I did cut outs. I rolled one 2″ roll of green and one of white. Chilled them, rolled them in green sugar crystals and then sliced them. I cut shamrocks out of the center and put the cutouts in the cookies of the opposite color. Great recipe, Thank You!
I made them! I foolishly thought that this would be a fun project to make with my daughter. It was not. She did not have the patience required for the chilling steps (she is 4)! But they came out cute anyway! I had some leftover red dough and so baked up some extra mini red hearts just by themselves, which were a cute size for adding to lunchboxes!
Delicious and beautiful!
I do recommend making the colors just a touch darker than you want, mine got lighter when baked.
Once again, your recipe was a hit. I didn’t bother with the inner different-coloured shape. I just formed the dough into a log before freezing and slicing. My texture wasn’t crisp because I needed to make these with gluten free flour but they are very tender and delicate and I loved that they were lightly sweetened. I used turbinado sugar on the outside and it gave the cookies a lovely crunch with a crème brulee-like flavour.
This recipe didn’t work out well for me. The only change I made was to do a half recipe as a test. If you don’t have a very small heart shaped cookie cutter, it falls apart. Also, cutting the frozen roll of dough, with egg white glaze that makes it slippery is a certain accident waiting to happen. I think it’s unnecessarily complicated, with the freezing and molding. If I were to make it again, I would roll out the colored dough, roll out the plain dough, cut out hearts in the colored dough, cut the plain dough into circles, then cut out hearts in the middle using the same cookie cutter as for the colored dough. Then, fit the colored hearts into the cut-out and then freeze the two together. This might make it stable enough for egg white around the edges and application of colored sprinkles.
Cooking time for me closer to 20 min – I think d/t log in freezer overnight & then put in fridge for a few hours this AM. Am still waiting for them to finish…..
These cookies were a huge hit for the Super Bowl party. Delicious and buttery! Perfect for someone that isn’t great at decorating cookies.
In the instructions it just says to tint the dough and then gives more detailed instructions on how to marble it. But how do you tint the dough at all? Put in drops in the finished dough and then…? knead it? mix it further? something else? Please help! (yes this is for tomorrow!)
I’d like to skip the sugar on the edges—just seems too crunchy. Is it sweet enough without?
I made these last night for Valentines Day:) They are SO yummy. I did have a question though. Ours came out not as uniform as the ones pictured in the recipe. They spread out a lot. I thought this could have been the butter but we used cold butter. Maybe we used our hands too much and it warmed it up quickly? What would you suggest to do next go around to prevent this? Thanks so much!
I’ve had the same problem, they taste amazing, but the edges are uneven and the biscuits end up a bit domed. I’ve looked at other recipes and they have a similar cooking temp and duration, would love any insights in how to make them more uniform.
Has anyone tried half and half for untinted vs tinted? My cookies seemed to come out too large. Thinking maybe back off on the outer rim of it may help.
Beautiful cookies!!
I made this for Christmas! I made the dough in the food processor, which came together quickly although I had to scrape the bottom to make sure all the egg yolk was incorporated. I chose a star shape, which was a bit too finicky for this. I doubled the dough and then messed up the proportions for the colored dough, which meant I didn’t have enough dough to go around my stars, so be sure to follow what the recipe says. I skipped the colored sugar because I couldn’t find any.
Despite all my self-inflicted mistakes, the cookie was really tasty! Very buttery and crumbly, I got compliments from everyone who tasted it.
Do you think this method would work with a standard shortbread recipe? Or would the dough not behave? I’ve a kid who loves valentines but is allergic to eggs. Thanks!
Here with the same Q. Would love to know any egg alternatives that would work here.
I’ve made these twice. The first try I didn’t get the dough on the outside tight enough to the heart. The second time, I fixed that, but could not for the life of me get the cookies round. I tried “scooting” them with a big round cookie cutter but they were a bit delicate for that. They taste great, they aren’t particularly difficult, I just wish I could figure out how to make them a bit more perfect. My kids love them and have declared them essential to Valentine’s Day so hopefully next year they’ll look a bit more round ;)