Simple sugar cookies with a marble glaze, these heart cookies would be a sweet Valentine’s treat.
These cookies might have waited until next month to be posted.
Valentine’s Day is nearly a month away, and these heart cookies would be completely appropriate as a gift for your sweetheart (or, just for yourself!).
In fact, I have no less than three other blog posts that I have prepared for you, ones that aren’t pink and colorful and might be better suited as my first true post of 2017.
But after exalting 2016 in my last post of the year, it threw me for a loop on the very last day, and 2016 took with it a very big and bright part of my family — my uncle.
I don’t want to devote this post to the sadness that slammed our family on New Year’s Eve, or the void that’s been left by his loss — in fact, I didn’t want to talk about this on here at all, but I don’t seem to be able to help myself.
Instead, I just want to focus on the bright spots.
In the past week, my family has rallied to comfort my uncle’s wife and daughters, and each other, and I’m so grateful for all of the love that family has. Despite the sadness, there has been some light.
My uncle’s immediate family has shown more strength, love, and hope in the past week than I ever imagined was possible under such circumstances, and I’ve found myself overwhelmed with gratitude for the close-knit extended family that we share.
Instead of sharing one of my other recipes that I have ready for you, I wanted to share something bright, and a little symbolic.
I spent all morning yesterday swirling pinks, reds, and purples through icing and dipping cookies — baking has always been therapeutic for me, but this time it was especially so.
These cookies are made using the same marbling, swirling, technique that I used for my galaxy cookies.
Please see that post if you want step-by-step photos on how the glaze is prepared — it’s much simpler than you might think and is a simple glaze decorated with gel food coloring and swirled with toothpicks.
Do make sure you use gel food coloring, which have a rich, vibrant color.
Enjoy, and I hope these bring some brightness to your day.
Heart Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened
- ¾ cups (150 g) sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 ¼ cups (295 g) all-purpose flour
Marble Icing Glaze
- 3 cups (415 g) powdered sugar sifted
- 3 Tablespoons light corn syrup
- 3-4 Tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- gel food coloring I used red, electric pink, and, for some cookies, just a touch of royal purple
Recommended Equipment
- heart cookie cutters
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In KitchenAid mixer or with electric hand-mixer beat your butter until well-creamed.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened
- Add sugar to the mixing bowl and beat with the butter until well combined (about 30 seconds).¾ cups (150 g) sugar
- Stir in vanilla extract and salt, stirring until well-combined, and scrape down the sides of the bowl using a rubber spatula to ensure ingredients are well-incorporated.1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon salt
- Add egg yolk and beat until combined1 large egg yolk
- With mixer on medium-low speed, gradually add flour until well-incorporated (you will definitely need to scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl several times for this, as the mixture is fairly dry and crumbs tend to settle at the bottom of the bowl).2 ¼ cups (295 g) all-purpose flour
- Transfer dough to clean surface and use your hands to form it into a cohesive ball.
- Flatten into a disk (about 1" thick), cover with clear wrap, and chill for 15 minutes.
- Once dough has chilled, transfer it to a clean, lightly floured surface and use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out to about ¼" thickness.
- Lightly flour your cookie cutters and cut out your shapes, transferring them to ungreased cookie sheet.
- Once you have cut out all of the shapes that you can, be sure to re-combine the scraps and roll out and cut out again to get the maximum number of cookies from your dough.
- Bake on 350F for 10-12 minutes (longer if you are using larger cookie cutterand allow cookies to cool completely before dipping in chocolate.
Marble Icing Glaze
- In a large bowl, combine sifted powdered sugar, 3 Tbsp milk, and light corn syrup. Whisk until smooth. If mixture is too dry, add additional milk, one teaspoon at a time until mixture can be stirred.3 cups (415 g) powdered sugar, 3 Tablespoons light corn syrup, 3-4 Tablespoons milk
- Stir in extracts.½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- Glaze should be thick, to test that it is the right consistency drop a few droplets on top of a test cookie. If the glaze remains stiff, it needs to be thinned. If it runs off the cookie, it is too thin and needs more powdered sugar. If it settles down smoothly, it is just right.
- Divide glaze into four small bowls.
- Working with one bowl at a time, use a toothpick (a different toothpick for each color) and dip it into the food coloring bottle and then into the glaze. You want a small pool of food coloring about the size of a mini chocolate chip or two.gel food coloring
- Drag a toothpick through the food coloring and glaze until it is prettily swirled/marbled.
- Holding your cookie at the base, dip the surface of each cookie into the glaze (take a look at your first cookie -- are you satisfied with the pattern? Adjust whorls with additional food coloring as needed).
- Once the first bowl runs out or the colors become too muddled together from dipping, move onto your next bowl of food coloring (you will probably need to stir as the surface may have begun to harden).
- Repeat steps 5-7 until all cookies have been dipped. Allow them to harden at least 30 minutes (may take longer) for glaze to set. Enjoy!
- Keep uneaten cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
PIN IT:
In memory of my uncle, Ray Parker.
Among many other things, Ray was a supporter of The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, specifically the Maryland Chapter. Please consider making a donation HERE.
Virginia
I believe in food bribery, These are beautiful and I’m taking a batch to the doctor’s appointment tomorrow – I always take something – and whenever I call them with a question, request or need for appointment – they remember me!!! I’m adding this cookie recipe to my standbys — banana bread, homemade pickles, sour cream cookies, crockpot candies, etc ….
Sam
Sounds like a great plan! I hope everyone loves these! 🙂
Jackie
Simple but great tasting cookies. I use melted chocolate for the top instead which came out great and harden fast.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed them, Jackie! Thanks for your review ❤
Marilou
I have been trying different sugar cookies for decades to find the perfect one. Search is over, this is it! Excellent taste, easy dough to roll out and only 15 min chill time. And beautiful cookies. Sugarspunrun, thank you, you checked all the boxes!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Marilou! 🙂
Theresa
Will these harden enough to stack with waxed paper between?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! We hope you love them 😊
Lily
These were fun to make and they turned out beautifully! Super tasty too 😋
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Lily! 🙂
Jada
Hi, Can You Use Wilton Decorating Gel For The Marble Icing Glaze ?
I’m Confused On The Difference Between Decorating Gel And Gel Food Coloring ? Thanks
Sam
Hi Jada! Decorating gel is a bit different, it’s usually sold in packets pre-made and isn’t a concentrated color like gel food coloring and unfortunately decorating gel wouldn’t work here. Gel food coloring can often be found in craft stores if your grocery store doesn’t have a cake decorating section (my local Walmart does and they carry gel food coloring there), or you can buy it online. Here is an affiliate link to Amazon for the “electric pink” gel coloring that I use. I hope that helps!
Rita
Love all of your recipes!
You are my go to gal😊
Any interest in “stamping “ cookies ?
I have been intrigued with this idea for a while.
I’m sure you’re the one that could perfect them
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them, Rita! I have actually purchased a stamp to do this, but it is taking me a while to get to the recipe. I do plan to do it at some point though. 🙂
Charmaine Forrester
would like to see more Nutritional information on this web page for all the recipes like the carbohydrate count…
Sam
I am currently working on getting full nutritional info added to my site. 🙂
Rose
Would these cookies hold up in the mail? Glaze has milk so no refrigeration needed?
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Rose! No refrigeration needed. I have never mailed them, however, if packaged well, I think that they should be fine. 🙂
Jane bumgarner
Can you freeze the cookies after glazed?
Sam
Hi Jane! I think that would work fine. You would need to separate them with wax paper or some other sort of liner so they don’t stick together. 🙂
Gwendolen Leadbetter
We used the icing on cinnamon shortbread hearts for a bake sale at my stepdaughter’s school. I used golden syrup as we don’t get corn syrup in the UK, and added a teaspoon of gingerbread syrup and some orange extract to the glaze. They look fantastic and taste wonderful!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed! 🙂
Christine
Hello,
I am allergic to almonds. Can I omit the almonds extract?
Sam
Hi Christine! You can leave it out completely or substitute something like vanilla extract. 🙂
Nichole @thesaltymarshmallow
So very sorry to hear about your uncle. You’re right, baking is therapeutic, good for the soul. These cookies look beautiful!
Julia
Very beautiful xx
Sues
I’m so sorry to hear about your uncle. What a sad way to end the year. You are in my thoughts!
These cookies are beautiful! I have been experimenting with the marbled technique on doughnuts and am obsessed with it (post coming soon!). Now I feel like I need to make cookies, too!
Jill
Can we use the sour cream cookies for this instead?
Sam
Hi Jill, are you referring to these frosted sugar cookies? They won’t work very well as cut-out cookies unfortunately and may be a bit too fragile when dipping.
Jill
I mean the cream cheese ones you cut into hearts can you use them instead?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes, those should work fine! Enjoy, Jill ❤