Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies | Wholefully (2024)

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Celebrate love with our irresistible Valentine’s Day sugar cookie recipe! These cookies deliver a perfect blend of buttery goodness and a hint of vanilla that will melt your sweetheart’s heart. The dough is incredibly forgiving, making it a breeze for even novice bakers to create these heart-shaped treats. Embrace the magic of homemade goodness and make this Valentine’s Day unforgettable with our tried-and-true sugar cookie recipe – because nothing says “I love you” like a plate full of delicious, made-with-love cookies!

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies | Wholefully (1)

Table of Contents

What makes sugar cookies flatten out?

If your Valentine’s Day sugar cookies are spreading and flattening out, there are a few things you can tweak to fix it:

  • Don’t skip the chilling step. The cookie dough absolutely needs to be chilled in order for the cookies to hold their shape.
  • Use cool cookie sheets. Either let your baking sheets cool for a few minutes or run them under cool water and dry them before filling them with more cookies to bake. Warm or hot cookie sheets will make the cookies spread more!

What do I need to make these sugar cookies?

If you bake regularly, you probably have everything you need already:

  • Unsalted butter
  • Granulated sugar
  • Eggs
  • Vanilla extract. If you want to mix things up, we’ve gotten delicious results from replacing part or all of the vanilla extract with peppermint, coconut, or almond extracts!
  • All-purpose flour
  • Baking powder
  • Salt
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Do you have to refrigerate sugar cookie dough before rolling?

Yep, you definitely cannot skip this step. Chilling the dough helps your sugar cookies hold their shape, and keeps them from spreading in the oven. If you want your Valentine’s Day sugar cookies to look like hearts or whatever other cookie-cutter shape instead of puffy blobs, youhaveto stash the dough in the fridge for a while.

What is the best way to roll out sugar cookie dough?

Typically, people will flour their work surface and rolling pin to keep the dough from sticking. But we prefer to use powdered sugar—it still helps the dough roll out smoothly while also absorbing into the dough. That way, you don’t end up with powdery flour residue on your cookies!

We recommend rolling your cookies between 1/8″ and 1/4″ thick, but consistency is more important than the precise thickness. As long as each cookie is roughly the same thickness, they will bake up evenly!

Protip: Re-roll your scraps!

Don’t let those dough scraps go to waste! You can roll them out again to cut out more cookies. If it feels like you are spreading softened butter instead of rolling out dough, re-chill the cookie dough scraps before rolling them back out.

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Frosting and decorating Valentine’s Day sugar cookies

There are three choices for icing sugar cookies: royal icing, buttercream frosting, and powdered sugar glaze. The really intricate designs you’ve probably seen on social media call for royal icing, which can be fussy to use and requires more skill.

Our favorite sugar cookie icing is a simple powdered sugar glaze. It is easy to tint, flavor, and use—just spread the icing to the edge and top with festive sprinkles. The icing dries hard enough to stack, but not so hard that it is difficult to bite into!

How far in advance can you make decorated cookies?

Your iced Valentine’s Day sugar cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. We recommend using parchment paper or wax paper in between the cookies to keep them from sticking to each other.

You can also freeze the baked cookies if they haven’t been iced yet! Freeze the cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet until solid, and then transfer them to a freezer-safe container or zip-top freezer bag. Use within three months.

While iced sugar cookies taste just fine after freezing, the icing tends to crack and lose its shine. We recommend waiting to decorate your frozen cookies once they are defrosted.

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Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies | Wholefully (5)

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies Recipe

Yield: 6-7 dozen cookies

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 8 minutes

Additional Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 28 minutes

These Valentine's Day sugar cookies are sure to make your loved ones smile. And don't worry about the decorating—we kept it simple as can be!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (3 sticks), softened
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or coconut or almond extract)
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling (see notes)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Sugar cookie icing dyed pink, red, or whatever color you want
  • Valentine's Day sprinkles

Instructions

  1. Cream together butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or using a hand mixer. Mix in eggs and extract.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the butter in batches, stirring until well combined.
  3. Divide dough into four equal pieces, shape into discs, and wrap each in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 2 hours in the fridge, or 20 minutes in the freezer.
  4. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  5. Remove one disc from the fridge and roll the dough out on a floured surface until the dough is 1/8"-1/4" thick.
  6. Cut with cookie cutters (we recommend hearts of course!) and transfer to an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6-8 minutes, watching closely. Cookies are done when bottoms are just barely golden. Remove cookies immediately from the baking sheet, and let cool completely on cooling rack before icing. Repeat with remaining dough, ensuring that the pans are cool to the touch before filling them with more cookie dough.
  7. Decorate withsugar cookie icing(keep it as white icing or add a few drops of food coloring to dye it) and sprinkles, as desired.

Notes

  • The standard way to roll out sugar cookies is to use additional flour, but you can also use powdered sugar. The powdered sugar absorbs into the cookie while it bakes and doesn't leave any flour residue.
  • Here's oursugar cookie icing recipefor when it is decorating time!
  • Make sure the cookies are cooled completely before icing.
Nutrition Information:

Yield: 72Serving Size: 1 cookie
Amount Per Serving:Calories: 94Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 21mgSodium: 49mgCarbohydrates: 13gFiber: 0gSugar: 6gProtein: 1g

At Wholefully, we believe that good nutrition is about much more than just the numbers on the nutrition facts panel. Please use the above information as only a small part of what helps you decide what foods are nourishing for you.

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies | Wholefully (2024)

FAQs

How to make packaged sugar cookie mix better? ›

There are a few things you can add to your ready - to - bake sugar cookies to give them more flavor . One option is to mix in some vanilla extract or almond extract to enhance the overall taste . You can also add in some cinnamon , nutmeg , or other spices to give the cookies a warm and cozy flavor .

How do you make Pillsbury sugar cookies keep their shape? ›

Cookies can spread when baked and lose their shape. To fix this, let your cookie dough rest in the refrigerator for an hour before you roll it out and cut out shapes. Our result: We didn't see a huge difference between chilled dough and room-temperature dough after baking.

How to prevent cutout cookies from spreading? ›

Use a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Coating your baking sheet with nonstick spray or butter creates an overly greasy foundation, causing the cookies to spread. I always recommend a silicone baking mat because they grip onto the bottom of your cookie dough, preventing the cookies from spreading too much.

How do you doctor up packaged cookie mix? ›

No one will even suspect they're store-bought (and we won't tell anyone!).
  1. Add brown sugar. ...
  2. Experiment with extracts. ...
  3. Mix in different candies and snacks. ...
  4. Add espresso or coffee grounds. ...
  5. Deepen the flavors by refrigerating the dough. ...
  6. Salt before baking the cookies. ...
  7. Reduce baking time for extra soft cookies.

What to add to store-bought sugar cookie dough? ›

Take plain sugar cookies up a notch with exciting mix-ins like chocolate chips, rainbow sprinkles, toasted chopped nuts, chopped dried fruit or M&M's. Add these after blending your butter and egg into the sugar cookie mix. This is our favorite hack for holiday Pillsbury cookie dough.

Why won't my sugar cookies hold their shape? ›

Oven Temperature

If you still notice that your cookies are spreading, another thing you can do to help cookies keep their shape, is increase the heat 10-25 degrees higher than the suggested temperature on the recipe. Every oven is different, so you may need to try this for yours.

Is it better to bake cookies at 325 or 350? ›

350° is the standard temp for a cookie, and it's a great one. Your cookies will bake evenly and the outside will be done at the same time as the inside. Baking at 325° also results in an evenly baked cookie, but the slower cooking will help yield a chewier cookie. The outsides will be a little softer, too.

Can you roll out and cut Pillsbury sugar cookie dough? ›

CUT-OUT COOKIES: Knead 1/2 cup all-purpose flour into dough. Roll on floured surface until 1/4-inch thick. Cut with 2 1/2-inch cutter. Bake 8 to 11 minutes.

Why poke holes in sugar cookies? ›

So by poking the holes in, the cookie. will ensure that the cookie shape does not spread, which sugar cookies love to do.

Why did my sugar cookies spread so much? ›

Mixing Butter & Sugar

If your butter is under mixed, it won't have the air pockets to hold it's shape. If it's over-mixed, the air pockets decrease in size and are unable to hold their shape in the oven—causing your cookies to spread. It's best to cream butter and sugar on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes.

How to get sugar cookies to keep shape? ›

Sandwich your dough between two sheets of parchment, roll, then freeze; it makes cut-out cookies a breeze! If you plan to store it for only a few hours or days, there's no need to overwrap the baking sheet; for longer storage, wrap the entire baking sheet tightly with plastic wrap before freezing.

What to add to dry cookie mix? ›

Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.

How to dress up store bought cookies? ›

Insert food-safe wooden crafts sticks into sandwich creme cookies. Dip cookies into melted bittersweet chocolate chips. Add chocolate-covered pretzels for ears, candy eyeballs and a cinnamon imperial for the nose.

Why is my Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix so dry? ›

Add more fat

If your cookie dough is too dry and crumbly, you can try adding more fat to it. This could mean adding more butter, shortening, or oil to the dough. If you're using a recipe that calls for melted butter, you could also try using cold butter and grating it into the dough.

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