Valentine Cookies are made with a simple sugar cookie bases and are dipped in white and dark chocolate and sprinkled with nonpareils (for a great, crunchy texture!) or sprinkles. These are the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert!
I finally get it.
I finally understand why stores set up their Christmas displays immediately after Halloween and why Valentine hearts begin popping up immediately after ringing in the New Year. Holiday seasons are short and they pass by quickly, and if you don’t start early you could miss out entirely.
I used to hold off on sharing my holiday-related recipes — who wants to see Christmas cookies before Thanksgiving, right? But… but so many of you come to my site through Pinterest or Facebook and in order to give these recipes a chance to even be seen at all, I need to be sharing them weeks or months in advance.
So while I was hesitant to share these Valentine Cookies already because it’s not even February yet and it’s hard for me to imagine anyone having their life so together that they’re already searching for Valentine’s Day recipes, I’m actually late to the pink & red game.
Basically, if I were a good blogger, I’d actually be sharing Cinco de Mayo recipes by now. I. Just. Can’t.
So for those of you seeing these Valentine Cookies in January, I hope you don’t mind. Is it ever really too soon for a buttery, chocolate and sprinkle covered cookie, anyway?
The cookie base for this recipe is one that I’ve used many times here before, it’s a favorite of mine that’s similar to shortbread (but better!) and I’ve adapted it into so many other recipes from my thumbprint cookies to my millionaire’s shortbread to my sugar cookies.
It’s simple to make, easy to roll-out, holds its shape perfectly while baking, and has a great not-too-sweet, buttery flavor and crisp texture that is perfect for covering in chocolate and sprinkles.
Tips for Making Valentine Cookies
- This dough can be left to chill for longer than 15 minutes — overnight or even 48 hours in advance will be fine — but if it is chilled this long it will need to sit at room temperature for about 15-30 minutes before it will be pliable enough to easily roll without cracking.
- Make sure to roll your dough at least ¼″ thick — you want the cookies to be thick enough that you can grip the base and dip them in chocolate easily.
- Cool your cookies completely before dipping — these Valentine cookies are fragile while they’re still warm!
- You can use any size/shape cookie cutter you want, but the bake time will vary depending on the size. Look for edges that are just beginning to turn golden brown to know that they are done.
- I used these heart cookie cutters (affiliate link) from Amazon, I used the second and third smallest cutters for the cookies in these pictures.
- If you don’t have melting wafers available where you are, you can use chocolate chips instead. Substitute 1 cup melting wafers for 1 cup of preferred chocolate chips and add 1 teaspoon of shortening. Melt the chocolate at 15 second increments, stirring in between, until smooth, and then dip your cookies. This chocolate coating will take longer to cool than the melting wafers would.
Enjoy!
How to Make Valentine Cookies
Valentine 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
- 1 cup (170 g) dark chocolate melting wafers
- 1 cup (170 g) white chocolate melting wafers
- Nonpareils for decoration
Instructions
- Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or you may use a large bowl and an electric hand mixer) and beat until well-creamed.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 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.
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Once dough has chilled, transfer it to a clean, lightly floured surface and use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out to 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 (this is how long it took me to bake my 2" heart cookies, you may need less time for smaller cookies or longer if you are using larger cookie cutters -- look for the edges to be just beginning to turn lightly golden brown) and allow cookies to cool completely before dipping in chocolate.
- Prep chocolate by placing dark chocolate melting wafers in one bowl and white chocolate melting wafers in another and preparing according to package instructions.1 cup (170 g) dark chocolate melting wafers, 1 cup (170 g) white chocolate melting wafers
- Once chocolate is melted, line a cookie sheet with wax paper and, firmly holding the base of each cookie, dip the surface into the chocolate.
- Immediately after dipping, place on wax paper lined cookie sheet (chocolate side up) and immediately sprinkle with nonpareils/sprinkles. Repeat, alternating with white and dark chocolate, until all cookies are covered with chocolate.Nonpareils for decoration
- Allow chocolate to harden before serving.
Notes
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.
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase anything through these links I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please view the disclosure policy for more information.
Beth
These cookies were amazing! They remind me of shortbread cookies I had in Scotland. Best sugar cookies I’ve made! We used royal icing for ours instead of the chocolate. I don’t rave about many recipes but this was worth writing a review for.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Beth! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review! 🙂
Ursula
Will make with grandkids. I have not been able to buy chocolate wafers in Canada. So I’ll be tempering a Swiss Lindt chocolate instead. Tried this a few weeks ago with your cake pops recipe and it was successful. Nice and glossy and crackly.
Sam
I hope everyone loves them, Ursula! 🙂
Joyce
These cookies are very easy to make and they turned out really pretty. I had a scalloped heart so I did not cover it completely at it was very cute. My family thought the vanilla goes better than the chocolate. The cookie itself tastes a little plain to me but maybe I am just not a huge fan of shortbread.
Christine
best cookies ever
easy to read recipe
delicious
held shape perfectly
timing worked out well
loved the smell while cooking
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Christine! 🙂
Kassie lassie
They where absolutely amazing my girlfriend absolutely loved them but they can’t be stored for 2 long but they still where amazing! Definitely making these again!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Kassie! 🙂
j
This was my first time making these. Made them with 2 inch cutters. I actually took more time and chocolate, but the look was worth it- i dunked the cookie completely with a fork and it covered the entire cookie with the Ghiradelli melting wafers. the end result was fabulous. i made sure i trimmed the sides of excess chocolate. i used sprinkles on the top. i brought them to my choir rehearsal and everyone scarfed them up. everyone LOVED THEM!
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed them so much! 🙂
j
Indeed they did, Sam. Say, your recipe inspired me to ask you this- would this recipe work with other molds, just as well? like similar sized shamrock molds for St Patricks Day? 🙂
Also thinking of freezing the dough days in advance if it’s ok….if I do that do you recommend baking straight from the freezer or chilling the dough overnight in the fridge? thanks in advance 🙂
Sam
This dough should work fine for really any cookie cutter shape you’d like to use. You could certainly freeze the dough if needed, but I think you could refrigerate the dough up to 5 days wrapped tightly. If you do freeze it, I would probably pull the dough out a day in advance to thaw and then it will probably need to warm even a bit more at room temperature before rolling it out. 🙂
j
I accidentally left the egg white in! Besides colour, did i screw up?
Sam
Was the dough a bit dry? Were you still able to roll them out? How did they turn out?
J
i was too afraid to try and was on a real time crunch so I threw it out
Gretchen
Can I substitute melted chocolate chips for wafers?
Sam
Hi Gretchen! Chocolate chips will work. Sometimes the chocolate chips can get some white streaks in it as it dries and will take longer to dry, but they will taste excellent. 🙂
Michelle
The first batch just came out of the oven and they are delicious! I dread cutout cookies because I always have problems rolling out the dough and it takes forever to frost and decorate. This dough has a short chill time, is easy to work with, and with a three inch cookie cutter I made about thirty cookies. Thanks for the recipe!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Michelle! 🙂
Aom Bunya
My first time to make cookies. So easy and really delicious! Everyone love it so this is my all time recipe to make. Thank you so much!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Congratulations on a successful bake! We’re so happy they turned out so well ❤️
Stephen
How do they hold up in the freezer
Sam
Hi Stephen! The cookies should hold up just fine in the freezer. 🙂
Dorothy Lin
I love the cookies, Sam! They taste great, esp. dipped in Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers w/ sprinkles. I put too much flour in my first batch (1/2 cup instead of 1/4 cup) and therefore those were more crumbly. The second batch was perfect. Even though they were thick, they are still delicate and easy to crack, so we were careful making them. My fourteen year old twins rolled them out, baked and decorated them, and gave them to friends for Valentine’s Day. Very cute and very festive. Thanks!
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Dorothy! 🙂
Elle
I am going to make these cookies and I just wanted to ask if I can use a hand mixer instead of a electric one because I am using olive oil instead of butter.
Sam
I really don’t recommend the olive oil substitution here. They are going to be a little messy, but you can mix by hand if you’d like.
Norman
Absolutely great success with this recipe. I was so worried I was going to mess this up because of several others having issue but my first attempt came out wonderful. I couldn’t find my cookie cutter so I used a knife to cut them into heart of all different types like floating hearts and traditional for example plus I was so anxious to make them I didn’t realize you used white and chocolate bark but I put dark chocolate confectioners sugar and butter together to dizzled on top of half and the rest I melted a white chocolate candy bar to cover. I did have sprinkles but I put them on sparingly before baking plus instead of rolling out in flour I used sugar instead but I did chill it before using as your other cookie recipes say it’s an important step. Just wanted to thank you for another delicious recipe. I’m sure to make again and again
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Norman! I’m happy to hear they turned out so well. 🙂