These Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies are a simple treat with a festive design to help celebrate love! It's a roll-out cookie dough cut into heart shapes and then made into sandwiches with red and pink frosting. It's a fun recipe to make with your kids or even your partner this Valentine's Day!
Recipe Essentials
- 🍽️ Course: Dessert
- ⏱️ Cooking Time: 20 minutes
- 🍴 Servings: 12
- 🧄 Flavor Profile: Sweet, buttery, and lightly vanilla-forward with a soft center and crisp edges.
- 🍚 Best Served With: A glass of milk, hot cocoa, or alongside fresh berries and whipped cream.
- 🧊 Make Ahead?: Yes, dough can be made 2-3 days ahead, or cookies baked and frozen for up to 2 months.
Summarize and Save This Content On
Valentine's Day is not one of the major holidays, but it's still fun to celebrate! My partner surprises me with flowers and a nice dinner, and I get to make these thoughtful cookies as a loving gift for him that we get to share. I promise you'll forget it contains store-bought ingredients.
If you're looking for more decorated sugar cookie recipes, I recommend sugar cookie blossoms and easy sugar cookie bars.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- It's great for celebrating: These heart-shaped sugar cookie sandwiches are perfect for celebrating Valentine's Day. They even have red swirl frosting in the middle to make them extra festive.
- It's customizable: You can use other colors like pink for the frosting, a different shape, and more to make it more your own.
- It's inexpensive: This recipe is cheap, too. Don't break the bank just to enjoy Valentine's Day cookies.
Ingredients
The ingredients listed below are simple and easy to find. You'll quickly see that this Valentine's cookie recipe is more focused on design than being homemade!
- Sugar cookie dough: Any variety of refrigerated sugar cookie dough will work perfectly. My go-to is usually Pillsbury!
- Frosting: Same goes for the frosting! Any vanilla or buttercream frosting is fine as long as it's white.
- Powdered sugar: This is actually used to flatten the cookie dough balls. It keeps them from sticking to the bottom of the glass but doesn't dry them out as flour would.
- Food coloring: Red or pink would be amazing for these decorated Valentine cookies. I went with red!
See the recipe card below for exact ingredient amounts, nutritional information, and detailed instructions.
Variations
- Chocolate: Add ½ cup of chocolate chips to the cookie dough for a lovely richness.
- Almond: Add ¼ teaspoon of almond extract to the frosting for a sweet, nutty flavor to complement the sugar cookies.
- Strawberry: Use ½ teaspoon of strawberry extract in the frosting for some fruity flavor.
How to Make Sugar Cookies for Valentine's Day
Here are the instructions needed to make these Valentine's Day sugar cookies. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F to get started!
Step 1: Form the cookies. Roll each cookie dough piece into a ball, and then gently dip the bottom of a glass in powdered sugar. Carefully flatten each dough ball until it's ¼ inch thick.
Step 2: Bake and cut hearts. Pop the pan into the oven and bake the cookies for 16-20 minutes. After removing them from the oven, cut a small heart shape into half the cookies, then move them to a cooling rack.
Step 3: Swirl the frosting. Add a line of white and red (or pink) frosting to their own piece of plastic wrap. Carefully roll each into a log, then place them in a piping bag.
Step 4: Decorate. Snip the tips of the plastic wrap, carefully pipe the frosting onto each whole cookie, then place a heart-shaped cut-out cookie on top. Repeat for the remaining sandwiches and then enjoy!
Recipe Tips
- Cool the cookies completely: Allow the sugar cookies to cool completely before adding the frosting, or it will melt.
- Choose gel dye if possible: I prefer gel food coloring or liquid food coloring because it doesn't change the consistency.
- Work quickly: The cookie dough is easiest to work with straight from the fridge, so work quickly when making the circles so it doesn't become sticky.
You may also make heart-shaped ginger cookies for Valentine's Day, too!
Storage Directions
- Storing: Store your sugar cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 days at room temperature or up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
- Make ahead: Form and cut out the sugar cookies and keep them in the fridge for up to 24 hours before baking them.
Serving Suggestions
- I like to serve these indulgent Valentine's Day sugar cookies with a scoop of ice cream. Go for your favorite store-bought favor or try a homemade one, like sprinkles ice cream and strawberry ice cream.
- Create an adorable Valentine's treat spread featuring strawberry candy, chocolate Chex mix, and these cookies!
- If you want a beverage that fits the theme, this pink mojito is perfect. Try a strawberry banana milkshake if you're making the Valentine cookies for kids.
If you like these and are looking for other ways to say "I love you" to that special someone, try this red velvet poke cake. It's super delicious. These pink velvet brownies are also great on Valentine's Day.
If you want to spice it up a bit, try giving these Bailey's truffles. Rich and delicious, with that added kick of Bailey's Irish Cream. Can you say yum?!
Recipe FAQs
Warm cookie dough tends not to hold its shape. If your cookies are warm, pop the sheet pan into the freezer for about 10 minutes before putting it in the oven.
If you want to prepare the heart shapes in advance and then freeze the cookie dough, you can! You may even bake them from frozen; just add 3-5 minutes to the baking time.
Sure! Use your favorite recipe or try the recipe used for these baseball sugar cookies.
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More Delicious Valentine's Day Recipes
Do you like Valentine's Day recipes? Here are some recipes you may also like to try.
If you try this recipe and love it please leave a star rating in the recipe card below or even better, drop a review in the comment section. I always appreciate your feedback. Be sure to follow along with me on Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube for more easy recipes!
Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies
Equipment
- Mini cookie cutter (about 1 inch wide)
- Wilton 2D piping tip or similar
- Piping bags
Ingredients
- 16 oz ready-to-bake sugar cookie dough I used Pillsbury
- 2 cups canned frosting white and pink ideally
- ¼ cup powdered sugar for bottom of glass
- ⅛ teaspoon salt optional
- drops Pink or red Food coloring dye optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Fill a small, wide bowl or plate with powdered sugar. Set the powdered sugar and a glass with a wide flat bottom nearby in preparation for pressing the cookie dough.
- Roll each pre-cut square of cookie dough into a ball and spread on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. While your hands are still slightly buttery from rolling, lightly coat the bottom of the glass to help the powdered sugar stick on the first use. For each dough ball, dip the bottom of the glass into the powdered sugar, then press the dough ball to about ¼ inch thickness.
- Bake 16-20 minutes or until just before browning. Bake just until edges lose their sheen for the softest, most sandwich-friendly texture. Remove baking sheet from the oven, tap on a flat surface if cookies are puffy. Without waiting, use a small cookie cutter to cut out a shape from half of the cookies. Cut slightly off-center so the prettiest part of the frosting shows through after assembly. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
- Prepare the frosting while cookies cool. Prepare 1 cup each of two flavored or colored frostings as outlined below. If using straight from container, skip ahead to "Assemble Piping Bags".
- Note: Choose frosting colors with strong contrast, but use caution when pairing complementary shades (like red and green), since they can blend into a dull brown or gray. Using the plastic wrap double-roll method and making sure each roll sits as far into the piping bag as possible helps keep the colors distinct until the moment they're piped.
- Assemble Piping Bags
- Cut 2 (8 inch) pieces of plastic wrap and lay them out on a flat surface. On each, spread 1 cup of frosting in a line. Fold one side of plastic wrap snuggly over frosting lengthwise. Then fold other side of plastic wrap over frosting and seal into a roll. Repeat with second frosting color or flavor.
- Lay both rolls of frosting beside each other with frosting aligned on one end. Trim one end of each frosting roll close to the frosting line before inserting into the piping bag. Once both are in the piping bag, squeeze evenly on both sides until both colors appear when piped.
- Assemble Cookie Sandwiches
- Once cookies have cooled completely, match top and bottom pieces together according to size. Lay pairs out next to each other with the bottom flipped over. Starting just off-center, hold the piping bag vertically and pipe a smooth spiral from center outward. Try not to press down when piping. Allow the frosting to flow (like a string) behind the piping tip and drop to the cookie naturally. At the edge, stop squeezing the piping bag but continue to move around the outer edge until the frosting breaks off neatly.
- Optionally, allow frosting to set in refrigerator for up to 10 minutes before sandwiching. Align cut out cookie with the best part of the swirled frosting and place down gently with just a small press. Optionally, allow frosting to set even further in refrigerator for 30-60 minutes. Remove from refrigerator at least 10 minutes before serving to soften cookies up again.
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Notes
- Chill the dough in the freezer for about 10 minutes if it becomes warm while you're cutting out the shapes. This will keep it an even circle.
- If you like, you may use homemade cookie dough instead of store-bought.
- Ensure that your cookies cool completely before you add the frosting so it doesn't melt.
Heidi says
These were surprisingly easy to make!
Karin and Ken says
They’re definitely easier than they look and definitely delicious too! All the best. Karin