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.
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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 are a fantastic recipe for any occasion.
These cute heart-shaped Valentine's butter cookies are a fun Valentine's Day dessert to make with your family.
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.
Step-By-Step Directions
It couldn't be easier to make Valentine's butter cookies. Preparation takes about 5 minutes and cooking takes about 8-12 depending on your oven.
The dough is made in 3 easy steps:
- 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. 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.
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.
- 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.
- Bake at 350 degrees 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.
If you are 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!
Recipe
Valentine's Butter Cookies
Equipment
- cookie cutter
- rolling pin
Ingredients
- ½ lb butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups flour
Instructions
- In an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add egg and vanilla extract. Beat on medium until incorporated.
- Add flour 1 cup at a time and mix on medium until smooth. If adding color, add the food dye after flour is mixed in and beat until food dye is incorporated.
- Chill for at least 1 hour. With a rolling pin, roll dough until ¼ inch thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on a greased baking sheet. Decorate with sprinkles.
- Bake at 350° for 8-12 minutes, until edges just begin to brown.
Notes
Nutrition
🍪 Storing 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.
🍪 Storing Butter Cookies
Valentine's butter cookies should be stored in an airtight container for about 1 week. They can be frozen for 12 months.
If you made these cookies, please let me know how they turned out. I'd love to hear from you!
If you enjoyed this recipe, make sure to give it a star rating and let me know what you thought in the comments! And follow me on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for more delicious recipes!
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Sylvie Brian-Charles
So delicious! I added chocolate chips on some decoration. Thank you!