These beautiful Valentine's sugar cookies make ideal gifts on the big day. Take some to work for your colleagues, or have your child give one to each of their classmates and teachers. Or, create an entire bouquet of them as a surprise for your special Valentine. Talk about the wow factor!
These classic sugar cookies are crispy and buttery. It's a fool-proof recipe and perfect for use with cookie cutters. They hold their shape well whilst baking.
You can decorate these cookies to your HEART'S content (see what I did there?) with royal icing. If you don't feel up to the piping task, they also look very sweet with sparkly sprinkles.
For more homemade Valentine gift ideas, try these velvety rum truffles with ginger. Or if you'd like to give your Valentine a fancy treat for tea, have a look at these mini pavlovas with rose and mascarpone cream. Romance on a plate!
What's to love about these cookies
- Makes a very special and unique gift on Valentine's day
- Fuss-free recipe
- Fool-proof and perfect for cutting shapes. It's a firm dough and the cookies hold their shape well whilst baking
- Can be made well in advance of Valentine's day
- The decoration ideas are endless. You don't need to use royal icing if you don't have the patience for it, or the time. See further down for easier ways to decorate that are just as pretty
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Key ingredients and substitutions
Unsalted butter - This provides a deep buttery taste to the cookies. We use unsalted butter, but you can use salted too. Just leave out the ½ teaspoon of salt.
Sugar - You will need normal granulated sugar, but you can also use castor sugar.
Vanilla extract - I love vanilla in a sugar biscuit, but don't let that stop you from using any flavour you want, like orange extract, almond extract etc.
You can also make these cookies more spicy by adding half a teaspoon each of cinnamon or mixed spice, etc.
Egg - Ensure the egg is at room temperature before adding it to the butter and sugar. It will mix in easier and give a smoother result.
Tip: To quickly bring eggs up to room temperature, place them in a bowl with warm water for a few minutes
Flour - Plain all purpose flour.
Gel food colouring - Gel colours are hands down the best in terms of colour vibrancy and the variety of colours you can get. You only need a very small amount to get good colour saturation.
The consistency of royal icing can change in a heartbeat by adding the smallest amount of liquid. That makes using gel colours ideal. Liquid food colouring might make the icing too runny.
Bamboo skewers - I prefer using bamboo skewers, often used for kebabs. They are a great length and they have one sharp end, making it easier to push into the cookies.
How to make these Valentine's cookies - Quick summary
The cookies:
- Prepare a few baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
- Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and beat again.
- Sift together the flour and salt and add this in three stages to the wet ingredients. Beat on a low speed after each addition, but only until you can see no more dry flour, then stop.
- Roll the sugar cookie dough out onto a floured surface and cut into shapes with a heart shaped cookie cutter.
- Gently insert the skewers into the cookies. Please see the detailed recipe further down for more tips on how to do this successfully.
- If you are not planning on using royal icing for decoration, now would be the time to add any sprinkles to the cookies, before baking.
- Place the cookies onto the baking sheets. If you place them in the below pattern, it will save you some space on the trays:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/356F/gas mark 4.
- To firm the cookies up before baking, place them in the fridge whilst preheating the oven. This will help the cookies hold their shape whilst baking.
- Bake for 12 minutes or until the outside edges of the cookies are a light golden colour.
- Allow the cookies to cool down a bit on their trays before transferring them to a cooling rack.
- Slide a spatula underneath each cookie and gently lift onto the cooling rack. At this stage, don't try and pick them up by the skewers, they will still be too soft. Once completely cooled down you can handle them to your heart's content.
For the royal icing:
- To give the cookies a smooth uniform coating of icing, you need 'flooding' consistency icing. To achieve this, mix together the icing sugar/powdered sugar, egg whites and vanilla extract.
- Before adding any water, test the consistency by lifting the spoon and drizzling a ribbon across the surface. If the ribbon disappears after 10 seconds, you have 'flooding' consistency icing.
- If it's too thick, add a tiny bit of water. Too runny, add some more icing sugar.
- If you want some of the icing to be thicker for more detailed piping, the icing needs to be the consistency of toothpaste. It should not spread as easily. Remove some icing for this purpose before thinning out the rest of the icing.
- Divide the icing into as many bowls as you want colours. Use a toothpick to add a very small amount of gel food colouring to each bowl. Mix well for good solid colours.
- Spoon into piping bags. Using fine piping tips, decorate your cookies how you wish.
- Allow the royal icing to dry for 12-24 hours
For expert tips on how to decorate cookies, see this video by Wilton. See this link to Litteviews-Crafts on the best piping tips to use.
Alternative decoration ideas
- 'Hundreds and thousands' sprinkles
- 'Vermicelli' sprinkles
- Small heart shaped sprinkles
- Dust the cookies with edible glitter and a large fluffy brush
- Drizzle chocolate over
- Dip the entire surface in chocolate. Pink ruby chocolate would look very pretty for Valentine's cookies
- If dipping in chocolate, consider adding a few bits of gold leaf for extra bling
- Keep the cookies plain and just tie beautiful ribbons around the skewers
Storage
The cookies, iced, will keep well for up to 30 days in an airtight container. If you are planning on making them as gifts for other people, you can make them up to 2 weeks in advance. The start of February would be a good time.
The cookies freeze well for up to 6 months in an airtight container.
FAQ
Butter cookies are made with a higher proportion of butter to flour, eggs and sugar. They are usually quite rich and crumbly in consistency.
Sugar cookies on the other hand, are made with a much higher sugar to flour, eggs and butter ratio. This makes them a bit tougher, stronger and therefore ideal for cutting shapes out of.
Shortbreads are typically only made with three ingredients; butter, flour and sugar. They are very buttery in taste and are often quite crumbly.
Sugar cookies on the other hand, are made with a much higher sugar to flour, eggs and butter ratio. This makes them a bit tougher, stronger and therefore ideal for cutting shapes out of.
Recipe
Valentine's sugar cookies on sticks
Ingredients
For the cookies
- 240 grams unsalted butter - softened
- 200 grams sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract - 5ml
- 1 egg - room temperature
- 400 grams plain flour
- ½ teaspoon salt - 2.5ml
- bamboo skewers
For the royal icing
- 340 grams icing sugar
- 2 egg whites
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1-2 teaspoons water
- gel food colouring in your preferred colours
Instructions
To make the cookies
- In a stand mixer, or using an electric hand mixer, beat together the softened butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and creamy
- Add the egg. Beat until well combined
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour and salt
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet in ingredients in three stages, beating on a low speed after each addition. Only beat until you can see no more dry flour, then stop. Over-mixing can lead to tough cookies**Tip: If you are using a stand mixer, you can do this step with the machine. If you are using an electric hand mixer, rather mix the flour in by hand. The dough will get quite stiff and you might put too much strain on your hand mixer
- Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and bring it together in a ball. Flatten into a disk. With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out into a thickness of minimum 8mm (⅓ of an inch). This thickness will provide enough support for the skewer to hold the cookies securely
- For this recipe, I used a heart shaped cookie cutter that's 8cm across the widest part. This size cutter will yield 18 cookies at 8mm thickness
- Cut the cookies into shapes. Re-roll any leftover dough to cut more shapes
To insert the skewers
- With the sharp end of the skewer, gently insert the skewer into the bottom point of the heart cookie. It helps to slightly roll the skewer back and forth between your thumb and index finger as you push the skewer in
- Try to keep the skewer horizontal as you push, otherwise you might accidentally push the sharp end through the surface of the cookie
- I find it helps to place the fingers from my spare hand on the surface of the cookie as you push the skewer in. You can 'feel' where it's moving
- Keep pushing the skewer in as far as possible and stop just before it breaks through the other side. This will provide a really good support for the cookie
- Gently push down on the cookie where the skewer is lying to compact the dough around it
- If you don't want to use royal icing to decorate the cookies, now would be the time to add any sprinkles before baking
How to space the cookies on the baking tray
- To save space on your baking tray, place the cookies in the below pattern
Bake the cookies
- Pre-heat the oven to 180C/356F/gas mark 4. Prepare two large baking sheets with baking paper or silicone mats. You may need more sheets depending on the sizes available to you
- Whilst you're waiting for the oven to heat up, place the baking sheets with cookies in the fridge to firm up. This will ensure the cookies hold their shape in the oven
- Bake for 12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are a very light golden colour
- Allow the cookies to cool down on the baking trays for about 5 minutes. Gently slide a spatula under each cookie and lift onto a cooling rack. IMPORTANT: Don't try and lift the cookies by the skewers just yet. They will still be soft and might break. Once the cookies have completely cooled down you can pick them up by the skewers
To make the royal icing
- Mix together the icing sugar, egg whites and vanilla essence until you have a smooth paste
- For 'flooding' consistency icing, i.e. to give each biscuit a smooth surface of icing, follow this tip for knowing when the consistency of the icing is correct:Smooth out the surface of the icing you've mixed. Lift the spoon up and drizzle a ribbon across the surface of the icing. If the ribbon disappears after 10 seconds, you're good to goDon't add any water yet until you have done this test. The sizes of the eggs you used might affect how runny or stiff the icing will beIf it's too thin, add a bit more icing sugar. Too thick, add a very small amount of water
- If you want some of the icing to be thicker for more detailed piping, the icing needs to be the consistency of toothpaste. It should not spread as easilyRemove some icing for this purpose before thinning out the rest of the icing for 'flooding' consistency
- Divide the icing into as many bowls as you want colours. Use a toothpick to add a very small amount of gel food colouring to each bowl. Mix well for good solid colours
- Spoon into piping bags. Using fine piping tips, decorate your cookies how you wish**See the blog post further up for links to the experts on how to pipe beautiful cookies and what piping tips to use for each method
- Allow the royal icing to dry for 12-24 hours
Notes
Nutrition
For food safety advice, including guidance on food allergies
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