Three words to describe these heart shaped shortbread cookies: simple, easy, delicious. There is no vanilla in this recipe. The flavor all comes from the butter so it’s really important to use good quality butter. In fact, there are only five ingredients required to make these cookies: unsalted butter, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, flour and salt.
These heart shortbread cookies are just as good as these previous cookies, only simpler to make.
Adding food color to the dough is optional. I just added a few drops of pink and red food color to get into that Valentine vibe.
The dough doesn’t even need to be rolled out. I only rolled out the dough so I could cut out some heart shapes. It’s faster using cookie cutters, but you can also cut out free forms with a knife, which would make for more interesting shapes.
The other option is to bake the cookie dough in a baking dish. While it’s still hot out of the oven, just slice into squares with a sharp knife.
Depending on the size of the cut outs, this recipe will yield a generous number of cookies. I made tiny bite size hearts, some medium size and a few free form hearts. After all that, I still have some extra unused dough in the freezer.
With the baby hearts, it’s nice that you can have a taste of the cookies without feeling a lot of guilt since they’re so little.
Also optional, while these heart shortbread cookies were hot right out of the oven I sprinkled some granulated sugar to add texture and interest.
Valentine’s Day is not that far off. I will probably make these cookies again in a few weeks.
Heart Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients:
- 3 sticks (1 ½ cups unsalted butter)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- Few drops of pink or red food color (optional)
Preparation:
- Preheat oven to 300 F.
- With a flat beater, cream butter until light and smooth.
- Add granulated sugar and mix until well blended.
- Add powdered sugar and salt and beat until fully combined.
- Add the flour and beat until fully incorporated.
- Optional: add a few drops of food color. Mix the food color in with the dough until thoroughly combined.
- For cutouts, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for about 15 minutes. Divide dough in two or three portions. Roll on a sheet of waxed paper and cut shapes with a cookie cutter. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for about 15 minutes, remove from oven and lightly sprinkle with sugar while still very warm.
- If baking cookie dough in a baking dish, press the dough evenly in a 9 x 13 ovenproof dish and pierce the dough making deep indentations with a fork all over the surface. Bake for about 35 – 40 minutes or, if the dough is not tinted, until lightly browned and slightly darker at the edges. Remove from the oven and cut into squares while still warm.
- 3 sticks (1 ½ cups unsalted butter)
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- Few drops of pink or red food color (optional)
- Preheat oven to 300 F.
- With a flat beater, cream butter until light and smooth.
- Add granulated sugar and mix until well blended.
- Add powdered sugar and salt and beat until fully combined.
- Add the flour and beat until fully incorporated.
- Optional: add a few drops of food color. Mix the food color in with the dough until thoroughly combined.
- For cutouts, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for about 15 minutes. Divide dough in two or three portions. Roll on a sheet of waxed paper and cut shapes with a cookie cutter. Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for about 15 minutes, remove from oven and lightly sprinkle with sugar while still very warm.
- If baking cookie dough in a baking dish, press the dough evenly in a 9 x 13 ovenproof dish and pierce the dough making deep indentations with a fork all over the surface. Bake for about 35 – 40 minutes or, if the dough is not tinted, until lightly browned and slightly darker at the edges. Remove from the oven and cut into squares while still warm.
Heart Shortbread Cookies
Pink Heart Cookies
About how many cookies does this make? I am not going to make the really small ones, I am making htem for my sons valentines day class to decorate… I need around 30 medium sized ones, will this recipe be enough or should I double it?
Hi there! Depending on the size of your cookies one recipe would yield about 2 dozen. So yes, I would double it to be on the safe side if you need 30 medium cookies.
just made the dough, rolled them out and used a cookie cutter. do these spread at all. i’m trying to fit a lot on a pan and want them spaced properly. thanks! (haven’t tried a cooked cookie yet but the dough is delish!
Hi! They will spread ever so slightly, if at all, since there is no baking powder.
I was wondering if your butter was room temperature or was it cold? I found this today on Pinterest and am super excite to make them on Valentines Day!
Hi Veronica,
The butter was at room temperature, more or less. If I start creaming the butter and I find it is still on the cold side, I just increase the speed and cream the butter until it is smooth and free of lumps. Also, I used the flat blade of a stand mixer for mixing. Thanks!
Made these today. 3 cups of flour was way too much. I had to add more butter then refrigerate and add even more butter so that the dough would come together to be able to roll out. They turned out yummy but definitely not as cute as yours. Next time will be the charm!
Apologies! I reviewed my notes to make sure I had typed in the right amount of butter from my test run, and indeed I used 3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) butter, which came out alright, and as shown. Not sure why results would be different. Most definitely, if it works for you, start out with more, @ 4 sticks (2 cups) butter. Also, I used Americolor gel color if that’s any help. Thanks!
Do you have St. patrickS day decorative desserts?
Hi Carol,
I haven’t made anything yet for St. Patrick’s, but will certainly come up with something in March.
If you need a quick idea, the shortbread cookie dough can be tinted with a few drops of green, then cut into shapes using a shamrock cookie cutter.