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Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day (you’re welcome for those men who forgot and are now running to the card store, haha) and I figured I’d have to at least have one festive recipe on here for the day.
As you all know, I’m not a fan of this “holiday,” but I’ll embrace it with open arms because well, it’s really just another excuse to eat, right? And bake pretty things :)
Valentine’s Day was a lot more fun as a kid. I remember going to the store with my mom to pick out what *I* wanted to give to all my classmates. I’m pretty sure I went for all the princesses. I remember getting home and writing the names of all my classmates on individual Valentine cards and consciously choosing which one was the “better” one to give to my closest friends and which ones were “just ok” to give to the kids in class I didn’t really like or interact much with, and of course being careful with the card to give your childhood crushes. Haha, those were the days…when cooties were a real thing.
Nowadays, Valentine’s Day can be fun, too, with a little bubbly and nice dinner, but the excitement sure isn’t there anymore. Maybe it can be brought back if we all wrote cute little love notes throughout the house and made a scavenger hunt out of them. I know, I’m not a big romantic, so that’s probably why I don’t have as much excitement, but I’m sure there are ways to spark that love up!
You can start with these heart-shaped chocolate sandwich cookies :) they’ve got a soft exterior and light pink buttercream interior. Eat your heart out!
Heart-Shaped Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (65 g) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
For the buttercream filling:
- ½ cup (114 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 tablespoon half and half
- 2 cups (240 g) powdered sugar
- 2-3 drops red food coloring
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Then add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat for 2 more minutes.
- Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until all combined and well-incorporated.
- Divide dough in half and shape into two discs. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- In the meantime, preheat oven to 350 °F (177 °C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Taking a portion of the dough out of the fridge at once, turn dough onto lightly floured surface and roll the dough to about 1/4-inch thickness. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter (or a round cookie cutter) to cut out the dough and transfer them to the prepared baking sheet.
- Repeat until all your dough has been used up. Bake for 12 minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
- While the cookies are cooling, make your buttercream.
- Cream together butter and half and half, then slowly add the powdered sugar. Once it’s all combined, about 2 minutes, add the red food coloring. Add more for a darker red color, if desired.
- Pipe the buttercream onto one half of the cooled cookies and sandwich together with another half.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
These are perfect in every way!! I don’t want anything else for Valentine’s Day, just these. Okay and flowers just for good meaasure. But mostly these!
These are so cute and I bet they taste fabulous! My favorite part about Valentines Day was picking out the cards for my classmates as well. I felt so grown up.
Beautiful, Julie! These look adorable. Happy LOVE day!
Be still my heart! Dang girl, these hearts are looking super fly! I too am not a big Valentine’s Day. I say keep it simple and eat some extra chocolate!
I love the buttercream filling in these, perfect compliment to the chocolate. So cute!!
Uhhhhh… will YOU be my Valentine?
Valentine’s Day is pretty much for the kids around there – they do so much at school. I love these cookies though. I made some last like them last year – very cute!
Those look awesome! I still totally love a cookie all tied up with string. It’s so dainty and sweet. Love the recipe!
Ooo, delicious. And so pretty too.
Valentine’s is a great excuse to make pretty girlish things :-)
These are adorable! My kid is in that fun Valentine’s stage right now. We spent forever deciding who’s getting which Power Ranger card!