It wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without Conversation Hearts. We’ve created a way to express your feelings in a BIG way by making these conversation heart cookies. Don’t hold back…show your Valentine how you really feel!
What you need for cookies:
1 roll of refrigerated sugar cookie mix
or your favorite sugar cookie recipe**
Heart-shaped cookie cutter
What you need for icing:
Red, yellow, green, blue and purple
paste food coloring
4 cups powdered sugar
4TBSP water
Making Cookies:
** See Tami's favorite sugar cookie recipe below.
Roll out chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to a 3/8-inch thickness. Cut out hearts and bake as per directed on the package or follow the directions in the recipe
below. Cool completely before icing.
Decorating Cookies
Mix the powdered sugar and water in a bowl until smooth; adding more water, if needed, a few drops at a time. Divide into 6 bowls for pink, yellow, green, blue & purple and leaving one bowl to color red - it will be used to write the words on the cookies. Color the icing using the paste food coloring. **Tip - you only need just a dab of the food coloring to get a light pastel color for the cookies but you will need to use slightly more red for a nice, deep red writing color. Ice cookies following the outline of each heart, stopping short of the edge of the cookie.
Add the red icing to a plastic baggie. Push the icing into one corner of the baggie. Snip off the very end point to make an icing bag. Print Valentine’s Day words and sayings onto the cookies. (Refer to the cookies in the picture above for ideas.)
To store these cookies, line a baking sheet with wax paper, then lay cookies in a single layer onto the paper. Freeze. Once frozen, the cookies can be stacked on top of each other. To thaw, place cookies in a single layer on a baking sheet or plate—do not thaw cookies while they are stacked together or the icing will stick to the other cookies.
**Tami's Favorite Soft Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup shortening (part butter or margarine)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (optional) I leave it out for white cookies
1/2 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Mix shortening, sugar, egg, & vanilla thoroughly. Blend dry ingredients. Add to sugar mixture alternately with sour cream.
Divide dough; roll out on a well-floured board. Cut with cookie cutters (metal cookie cutters w/ open tops are the easiest) You can make these as thick as you want... the thicker, the chewier.
Place cookies on lightly greased baking sheets. Sprinkle with sugar unless you are going to ice them. Bake 7-8 minutes or until very lightly browned around the edges. Makes 3-4 dozen but I never get this many because I make mine thicker.
If you use the nutmeg in them, you don't even need the icing but it will give your cookies a slight off-white appearance if they are left un-iced.
If you like chewy cookies, roll them out a little thicker. If you like thin, crispy cookies, roll a kind of thin but not real thin or you wont be able to remove to them from cookie pan.
This dough is very easy to work with too! I always double it because I like the thicker cookies.
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