These delicious and simple Valentine's Butter Cookies are made with only 5 ingredients: butter, flour, egg, sugar, vanilla. Color the dough pink or red and use heart cookie cutters to create cute shapes for Valentine's Day parties and gifts! These cookies can be modified for any holiday or special occasion by simply changing the cookie cutter and dough color.
This basic butter cookie recipe is full of amazing flavor. There are only 5 simple, pantry ingredients and the dough comes together in only 5 minutes. Chill the dough, roll it, cut it out, and bake!
While this recipe is for Valentine's Butter Cookies, it can be easily tweaked for any holiday. With a simple change to the cookie cutters, food coloring and sprinkles, these butter cookies can be turned into Christmas cookies, Easter cookies and more.
These cute heart-shaped Valentine's butter cookies are a fun Valentine's Day dessert to make with your family. So start a family tradition of making these every year or serve after your homemade dinner in. Bring them to your kids' school parties or gift them to family, friends, and neighbors!
Ingredients
These simple Valentine's butter cookies are made with only 5 ingredients: butter, sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, and flour.
If you'd like to make your dough pink or red, you'll also need food coloring. I made half of my dough pink and left the other half it's natural beige color.
You'll also need a heart cookie cutter, sprinkles and icing (which is optional).
How To Make Butter Cookies
It couldn't be easier to make Valentine's butter cookies. Preparation takes about 5 minutes and cooking takes about 8-12 minutes depending on your oven.
Making The Dough
- Using an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until it's fluffy and mixed well, which takes about 2 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed until the egg is incorporated, about 1 minute.
- Add the flour 1 cup at a time and beat on low until it's incorporated. Once the flour has been fully added, add a few drops of food coloring and increase the speed to medium. Mix until the dough is smooth and the color is even. Add more food coloring as you go until the dough is the color you would like.
Dough Making Tips
- Once the dough is ready, chill it for about 1 hour. Chilled dough will not stick to your hands as much as warm dough, making it easier to work with when rolling and cutting.
- You can also make the dough a few days in advance, store it in the fridge, and bring it to room temperature for 1 hour before rolling.
Once the dough has chilled, you're ready to roll it out and start decorating your Valentine's butter cookies.
Making The Cookies
- Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out on a floured surface until it's about ¼ of an inch thick.
- Press cookie cutters into the dough and remove the shaped dough to a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Decorate with sprinkles (save the icing for after they are baked).
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-12 minutes. Always check the cookies at the 8 minute mark, as each oven cooks a little different. You'll know they're down when they just begin to brown on the edges.
- Remove from the oven, let cool and decorate with icing and more sprinkles.
Decorating Tips
- If you're decorating with icing, let the butter cookies cool first before decorating.
- Icing can be used to create words, outlines, or polka dots on your Valentine's butter cookies. Another option with icing is to spread it over the entire cookie and top with sprinkles.
- In addition to sprinkles and icing, you can make colored paints and paint them however you'd like. To make cookie paint, mix 1 egg yolk with ¼ teaspoon of water. Then add a drop or two of food coloring, mix, and paint your cookies using a paintbrush.
Once the decorating is done, eat and enjoy!
How To Store Butter Cookie Dough
When making the dough for Valentine's butter cookies in advance, store it in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic in the fridge. It can be stored in the fridge for 3 days. You can also store it in the freezer for a few months.
How To Store Cookies
Valentine's butter cookies should be stored in an airtight container for about 1 week. They can be frozen for about 6 months.
Recipe
Valentine's Butter Cookies
Equipment
- stand mixer or electric hand mixer
- baking sheet
- Rolling Pin
- heart shaped cookie cutter
Ingredients
- ½ lb butter, room temperature
- ¾ cup white sugar
- 1 large egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- pink food coloring, optional
- red, white or pink icing, optional
- red, white or pink sprinkles, optional
Instructions
- Using an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and mixed well, which takes about 2 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla extract. Beat on medium speed until the egg is incorporated, about 1 minute. Add the flour 1 cup at a time and beat on low until incorporated.
- Once the flour has been fully added, add a few drops of pink food coloring (if using) and increase the speed to medium. Mix until the dough is smooth and the color is even. Add more food coloring as you go until the dough is the color you would like.
- Chill the dough for at least 1 hour. Once chilled, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out on a floured surface until it's about ¼ of an inch thick.
- Press the heart cookie cutter into the dough and remove the shaped dough to a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Decorate with sprinkles if desired (but do not use icing until baked).
- Bake at 350℉ for 8-12 minutes. Check the cookies at the 8 minute mark, as each oven cooks a little different. You'll know they're down when they just begin to brown on the edges.
- Remove from the oven and cool for 20 minutes. Decorate with icing and more sprinkles if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
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