Prepare cookie dough: In a heatproof bowl or a double boiler, melt the chocolate and set it aside. Place flour, baking powder, spices, salt and pepper into a medium bowl and whisk to combine, setting aside. Place butter and sugars into a large bowl. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat these ingredients together until light and fluffy. Crack eggs into a smaller bowl first and whisk to combine, then add them to the wet mix, followed by the melted chocolate. Add the dry mixture little by little, mixing until the dough comes together.
Transfer dough to work surface, bringing it together by hand. Wrap the dough into two discs and chill for at least 30 minutes. Dough can also be frozen for future use.
For baking: Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two or three baking trays with parchment paper.
Lightly flour your work surface, as well as both sides of the dough and rolling pin. Roll out a disc of dough to an even ¼-inch thickness. Don’t worry if a bit of excess flour is on the dough, it will disappear while baking. Cut cookies into heart shapes using cookie cutters. Transfer cookies to a parchment-lined baking tray and bake in oven for 5-6 or 8-10 minutes, depending on size. Remove cookies from oven and immediately transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
To decorate: Melt white chocolate in a double boiler. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a #2 nib, or snip off the very end to create a small opening. Once cookies are cool, do a zig zag across the top of each cookie followed by a sprinkle of sparkling sugar, or miniature fondant hearts. Cool to set.
You can also write messages on the cookies using royal icing.
Icing can also be tinted colours to create additional design enhancements.
Valentine Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup dark brown sugar, packed
6 ounces dark chocolate
2 eggs, room temperature
2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ heaping teaspoon each cloves, allspice, nutmeg
¼ heaping teaspoon kosher salt
¼ heaping teaspoon black pepper
pinch of cayenne (optional, but just do it!)
To decorate:
white chocolate chips or discs
¼ cup fondant hearts
¼ cup red sparkle sugar
royal icing
food colouring
Directions
Prepare cookie dough: In a heatproof bowl or a double boiler, melt the chocolate and set it aside. Place flour, baking powder, spices, salt and pepper into a medium bowl and whisk to combine, setting aside. Place butter and sugars into a large bowl. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat these ingredients together until light and fluffy. Crack eggs into a smaller bowl first and whisk to combine, then add them to the wet mix, followed by the melted chocolate. Add the dry mixture little by little, mixing until the dough comes together.
Transfer dough to work surface, bringing it together by hand. Wrap the dough into two discs and chill for at least 30 minutes. Dough can also be frozen for future use.
For baking: Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two or three baking trays with parchment paper.
Lightly flour your work surface, as well as both sides of the dough and rolling pin. Roll out a disc of dough to an even ¼-inch thickness. Don’t worry if a bit of excess flour is on the dough, it will disappear while baking. Cut cookies into heart shapes using cookie cutters. Transfer cookies to a parchment-lined baking tray and bake in oven for 5-6 or 8-10 minutes, depending on size. Remove cookies from oven and immediately transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
To decorate: Melt white chocolate in a double boiler. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a #2 nib, or snip off the very end to create a small opening. Once cookies are cool, do a zig zag across the top of each cookie followed by a sprinkle of sparkling sugar, or miniature fondant hearts. Cool to set.
You can also write messages on the cookies using royal icing.
Icing can also be tinted colours to create additional design enhancements.
Valentine Cookies
5 / 5. 2
Chocolate cookies, cut into hearts and decorated with Valentine-inspired sprinkles and heartfelt messages…
You and your loved ones will love these heart-shaped VALENTINE COOKIES!
We love how easy these scrumptious spiced chocolate cookies are to make. We also love how much fun we had decorating them with icing, sprinkles and heartfelt messages. The most important thing about these cookies is the one thing I can’t show you: the looks on people’s faces when you give them out. These VALENTINE COOKIES deliver lovely sentiments each and every time.
Before sharing a few tips on making this homemade cookie recipe, let’s hear it for all the cookie monsters out there – that’d be you. We absolutely love cookies here at Weekend at the Cottage and often serve them for dessert. After making this cookie recipe, try our PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES, these CHOCOLATE CHIP OATMEAL COOKIES, our GINGERSNAPS, these CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES and then these COCONUT BUTTER COOKIE MACAROONS. Remember, sharing is caring, so send these recipes to all your cookie-monster friends too!
Now that cookies are top of mind, let’s make these VALENTINE COOKIES:
INGREDIENTS
If this shot of the ingredients for this cookie recipe looks familiar, you’re right. The dough is the same one we used to make our CHOCOLATE CHRISTMAS COOKIES. After all, when cookies are this memorable and wonderful, why mess with a good thing?
The only caveat to the above is the quantity of spice; adjust to your taste. If you want to echo the heady aromas of cinnamon hearts, add a second teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Want a more pronounced cinnamon flavour, try breaking up cinnamon sticks and zip them up in a spice mill to give fresh cinnamon notes. You can also increase the measurements for the cloves, allspice and nutmeg. Even our recommended pinch of cayenne pepper can be upped to ⅛ of a teaspoon or even ¼ teaspoon. Giving these cookies a bit of heat is fabulous.
WHAT’S THE BEST CHOCOLATE FOR CHOCOLATE COOKIES?
If this seems like an overwhelming question, let me assure you, it’s not. I’m going to review three key takeaways whenever we think about adding chocolate flavour to cakes, cookies, pies or puddings. The first point is about CACAO, the name of the small tree native to the Amazon basin that grows cacao, also known as cocoa beans. Cacao powder is a minimally processed powder made from the raw cacao beans. Cocoa powder is made from the same cacao beans, but they’re roasted at a higher temperature and the powder is often treated with an alkalizing agent to reduce bitterness. In this recipe, we melted chocolate made with a high percentage of cacao to impart a deep dark chocolate flavour. Now you’ve heard before how chocolate is good for us too. High-quality dark chocolate can lower the risk of heart disease, is low in trans fat, contains fibre, magnesium, copper, iron, lots of antioxidants, and can improve brain function.
COOKIE DOUGH
Making the cookie dough for this recipe is surprisingly simple. First, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set on a double boiler. Once the chocolate is melted, set it aside to cool. While the chocolate cools, stir or whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. The dry mix includes unbleached all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder. You can set the dry flour mixture to the side for a moment as well. Pro tip: Watch the VIDEO attached to this recipe for a crash course on how easy it really is.
The next step is to add the wet ingredients and sugars. For best results, have the unsalted butter and eggs at room temperature. Then, measure the granulated sugar and dark brown sugar. Place the butter and sugars into the bowl of a stand mixer, if using, and add the paddle attachment. Mix the dough together at low speed. We found a hand mixer in a large bowl worked well too. The last step with these ingredients is to incorporate the cooled melted chocolate, then add the dry mix little by little. That’s it!
The finished cookie dough might not look like much, but trust us, it is. Sure, there are no chunks of chopped nuts or morsels of chocolate chips, dried fruit or sprinkles, but that combination of spices and premium chocolate flavour is perfect. These cookies have a pleasing taste without being overly sweet.
Divide the dough into two equal portions, flatten into discs, wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out. That time in the fridge will chill the chocolate and butter and create a malleable cookie dough. With two portions of dough, you can also freeze one (or both) if you intend to make cookies at a later date. Then, just defrost each cookie dough disc and make cookies to order.
COOKIE CUTTER RECIPE
Even though we created a unique chocolate cookie dough, it’s still a cookie-cutter recipe. Time to pull out that heart cookie cutter we just know you have, but only use maybe once a year. Let’s say you don’t have the heart and Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, just head to a local bulk food or cooking supply store. They’ll have them for sure. If you want variety, use square, circular or star-shaped cutters, just make sure you decorate them with heartfelt messages. This technique also works with a favourite sugar cookie recipe, like THIS ONE. Another option is to bake your favourite red velvet cookies recipe. Heck, we’re giving you tons of options on how to make this homemade Valentine’s Day cookie recipe your own.
HOW TO BAKE HEART-SHAPED COOKIES
So, you’re game to learn how to bake heart-shaped cookies? It’s easy. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, then cut out your heart shapes. Transfer to a parchment paper-lined baking tray and then off they go into a preheated 375°F oven.
Bake time on these cookies is between 8 – 10 minutes total time, shorter if you’re making the smaller heart shaped cookies as we did, which took between 5 – 6 mins. We know some of you will ask, “Can I bake the cookies off in advance, freeze them in a storage container, then decorate later?” You bet you can! Simply defrost the cookies and decorate away. I also expect a whole bunch of readers will add this cookie recipe to their “Decorate cookies with the kids” list.
Transfer the baked cookies to a wire cooling rack using an offset spatula or lifter as soon as they come out of the oven. Doing so stops the cookies from further-baking on the hot baking sheet. It also provides ample time for them to cool. The cookies must be completely cool before decorating.
DECORATING VALENTINE COOKIES
Now it’s time to get creative with decorating these cookies and, ding! ding! ding!, we’re giving you two options. The first option involves a drizzle of melted white chocolate.
You’ll also need a sprinkle of either red sparkling sugar or little candy or fondant hearts. Use a double boiler to melt the white chocolate, then transfer it to a piping bag fitted with a #2 open nib. Do a zig-zag on each cookie, then add your sprinkles of choice.
Now, because food is our love language, here’s a second option: cookies decorated with heartfelt messages. The inspiration for these came from those small pastel-coloured candy hearts we used to get on Valentine’s Day. The messages said it all: Be Mine, Love You, Kiss Me, and so on. Use ROYAL ICING made with icing sugar, vanilla extract and water. Use the same #2 nib to write whatever you wish. You can also tint the icing with red, food grade colouring to create different colours, add little florets, stars and whimsical little design enhancements.
Before you know it, love is both in the air and on these wonderfully scrumptious cookies. This Valentine’s Day cookie recipe is so fantastic, we suggest you PIN the recipe to a favourite baking or festive treat cookie board on PINTEREST or BOOKMARK this tab for easy access. SHARE it with friends so they can make them too. We’d also appreciate seeing pics of all the delicious treats you’re making these days. Use #weekendatthecottage when you post those pics on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks!
VALENTINE COOKIES with sparkles, sprinkles and heartfelt messages. LOVE IT!
Cook Mode Use cook mode to keep your screen on while cooking.
Ingredients
For the cookies:
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup dark brown sugar, packed
6 ounces dark chocolate
2 eggs, room temperature
2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ heaping teaspoon each cloves, allspice, nutmeg
¼ heaping teaspoon kosher salt
¼ heaping teaspoon black pepper
pinch of cayenne (optional, but just do it!)
To decorate:
white chocolate chips or discs
¼ cup fondant hearts
¼ cup red sparkle sugar
royal icing
food colouring
Directions
Prepare cookie dough: In a heatproof bowl or a double boiler, melt the chocolate and set it aside. Place flour, baking powder, spices, salt and pepper into a medium bowl and whisk to combine, setting aside. Place butter and sugars into a large bowl. Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat these ingredients together until light and fluffy. Crack eggs into a smaller bowl first and whisk to combine, then add them to the wet mix, followed by the melted chocolate. Add the dry mixture little by little, mixing until the dough comes together.
Transfer dough to work surface, bringing it together by hand. Wrap the dough into two discs and chill for at least 30 minutes. Dough can also be frozen for future use.
For baking: Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two or three baking trays with parchment paper.
Lightly flour your work surface, as well as both sides of the dough and rolling pin. Roll out a disc of dough to an even ¼-inch thickness. Don’t worry if a bit of excess flour is on the dough, it will disappear while baking. Cut cookies into heart shapes using cookie cutters. Transfer cookies to a parchment-lined baking tray and bake in oven for 5-6 or 8-10 minutes, depending on size. Remove cookies from oven and immediately transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
To decorate: Melt white chocolate in a double boiler. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a #2 nib, or snip off the very end to create a small opening. Once cookies are cool, do a zig zag across the top of each cookie followed by a sprinkle of sparkling sugar, or miniature fondant hearts. Cool to set.
You can also write messages on the cookies using royal icing.
Icing can also be tinted colours to create additional design enhancements.
Until Cottage Season
