Easy to Make Frosted Cookies for Valentine’s Day

Homemade cookies, especially during a special day like Valentine’s day, is the best way to make your loved one feel special.  Even if you are not that skilled in baking, worry not. This special cookie is easy to make, icing and all.  All you need are some ingredients, the best cookie cooling rack, and some confidence when baking.  Step aside, Cupid!  These cute frosted cookie hearts will surely make some hearts melt.

Making the Frosted Cookies

These heart cookies are perfect for your little ones, too. You can make the dough and all from scratch to finish, or you can make the cookies in advance and have a big cookie decorating party later. Just make sure to put them on your cute and best cookie cooling rack for decorations.

Make a few extras. There’s always someone who could use a little love.

Ingredients for the Cookie

• Flour
• Baking powder
• Salt
• Sugar
• Milk
• Butter (Softened, room temperature butter always works best)
• Egg yolks (this is perfect for the cookie icing)
• Vanilla

Ingredients for the Royal Icing:

• Confectioner’s sugar.  If you have no confectioner’s sugar, you can make powdered sugar from granulated sugar. Whiz it through a high-powered blender for a few pulses.
• Vanilla
• Egg whites or some pasteurized egg whites or meringue powder

Steps on How to Make the Sugar Cookie Dough

An old family recipe with simple ingredients makes these sugar cookies present the perfect palette for lots of royal icing.  

1. Sift the dry ingredients together: the flour, baking powder, and salt. 
2. Set them aside while you mix your wet ingredients.
3. Beat your softened butter and sugar until they are pale and fluffy. The standing mixer or your handheld mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed will work best for this.
4. Add the egg yolks and the vanilla and turn the mixer’s speed down to low and add your flour mixture, then the milk, until your dough is fairly incorporated.
5. Scrape out the dough into a floured work surface, shape it into a ball or disc, and wrap it up with a plastic wrap.
6. To make it easy for you to work with the dough, chill it for at least two hours—or up to two days in advance.

Rolling Out, Cutting, and Baking the Sugar Cookie Dough

1. Now that your dough has been chilled, you’re now ready to roll—literally! For your information, sugar cookies usually bake at 350 degrees, so you should preheat the oven.
2. Lightly sprinkle some flour to your work surface and place the cookie dough on the surface. You can use a large sheet of parchment or waxed paper between your rolling pin and the dough.
3. Roll out the dough to about 1/8″ thickness. 
4. Remove the waxed or parchment paper and press the cookie cutters into your dough to make many cookies from the rolled-out dough.
5. Gently separate these cookies from the rest of your rolled-out dough and move them into a baking sheet with lined parchment or silicone baking mats.
6. Scrape the dough back into a ball, repeat the process, roll it out, cookie cutting, etc. If the dough becomes too sticky, pop it in the fridge and chill for about 10 minutes before doing it again.
7. Instantly bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until they turn light brown. If you are going to make thicker rolled sugar cookies, they might take a little longer to cook.
8. Lastly, take the cookies to the best cookie cooling racks to cool. They should be completely cool before decorating them.

Making the Royal Icing

Royal icing is perfect for cookie icing. It is great for outlining and “flooding” (filling the outline). You can use all the leftover egg whites from your cookie dough in making the icing. But, if you don’t want to use raw eggs in your icing, you can use an equal amount of pasteurized egg whites as a substitute with the help of the best cookie cooling rack.  Here are the steps below.

1. Beat some egg whites with a drop of vanilla on high speed using your mixer.
2. Reduce your mixer’s speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar until it is shiny and incorporated.
3. Turn your mixer back on high for about 5 minutes until your icing turns glossy and forms peaks.
4. Add food coloring to create the color you like, transfer it to the piping bags, or use a spatula.

Tips:

• If you’re planning to use sprinkles or colored sugar as toppings, work fast as its surface dries up pretty quickly.
• Make a few cookies at a time ’til you get the rhythm.

Conclusion

This gorgeous, easy-to-make sugar cookie sure is a favorite for special events like Valentine’s day.  If your first time baking, don’t fret if your cookies look less than perfect.  They’ll firm up beautifully once on top of your best cookie cooling rack.  Make your baking more fun!  That way, you will be known to be the best Valentine cookie baker around.