Fun Valentine’s Day Cookies

Nothing says “I love you” like a homemade gift…especially when it’s personalized AND from your kitchen!

This year I had so much fun baking these sweet, unique Valentine’s Day cookies. These cookies look fancy, but are easy to make. And the best part: they are customized, so your loved ones will really feel special biting into a delicious cookie personalized just for them.

I’ve included my go-to recipes for you below, as well as some tips and hints to make your baking experience fun.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Easy Sugar Cookie Recipe (recipe from Pure Wow, also linked HERE)

INGREDIENTS

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 sticks butter (1 cup), softened

1 egg

¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Sift the flour into a bowl (I always cheat on this step – just give the flour a good “fluff” before measuring, and you’ll be just fine). Add the baking powder and salt, then whisk gently to combine.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment*, cream the butter with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, then mix to combine. Scrape the side of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are evenly incorporated into the mixture. *Don’t have a fancy electric mixer? A hand-held mixer will work just fine. (So will good old-fashioned hand mixing, but who has time for that?!)
3. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until the dough comes together. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to ½ inch thick. Cut the dough using your favorite cookie cutters, then transfer the cookies to an ungreased baking sheet. (I like to use parchment sheets, like THESE, to line my baking sheets.)
5. Bake until the cookies are lightly golden around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. For even baking, rotate the pan halfway through baking. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack, and cool completely before decorating.

THE ONLY ROYAL ICING RECIPE YOU WILL EVER NEED

I’ve experimented with all kinds of recipes, and this is my tried and tested go-to, also linked for you here: https://bakingamoment.com/royal-icing/ . This will give you the perfect consistency to outline your cookies, and the recipe can easily be watered down for “flooding” your cookies when you begin to decorate.

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons meringue powder

6 tablespoons water

2 2/3 cups powdered sugar

Gel paste icing colors for tinting

Additional water for thinning

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the meringue powder and water in a large mixing bowl and whip (with the whisk attachment) until foamy (about 3 minutes).
2. Add the powdered sugar and whip on medium speed until very stiff and thick (it should hold a stiff peak).
3. Tint as needed with gel paste icing colors.
4. Thin with additional water , one drop at a time, to get a spreadable consistency.

To decorate your cookies, start by piping a thin outline with the thicker icing. I typically tint the entire bowl of icing first and then scoop a small amount into a pastry bag. I use a No.2 round tip without a coupler. You can use a coupler, but to me, it’s just one more unnecessary step that isn’t really needed (and creates more to clean up later).

Once I have outlined all of the cookies, I thin down the icing (one drop of water at a time) until I have a more “spreadable” consistency, and then I transfer this icing into a new pastry bag to flood the icing onto the cookies. For this step, I don’t use a tip with the pastry bag – just cut a small bit off the bottom of the bag (around 1/4″) and flood directly onto the cookies.

Once you have frosted and decorated your cookies, give them enough time to dry. The icing will form a light, crusty barrier about 30 minutes after frosting, but they will still be wet underneath. Give your cookies at least 8 hours to dry (I like to decorate at night and leave them out to dry overnight.)

For these particular cookies, I waited for the icing to dry and then went back in with another layer of icing for the letters and hearts. I used an edible marker and a template to trace the letters and shapes and then filled them with icing. To make the template, I simply cut letters from a document I created and printed.

To prepare the cookies for gifting, I placed each one in a clear cello bag (available at most craft stores, but I typically purchase the bags at Michael’s), and tied them with ribbon. Fun, festive, and personalized.