Valentine’s Day Vanilla Cut-Out Cookies

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Valentine’s Day Vanilla Cut-Out Cookies

Cz Valentines-Owl

By Katie Goodman
Kids love to help decorate cookies! Special Valentine’s Day cookies are a great way to celebrate at home and with friends. For a Valentine’s Day cookie decorating party, the cookies and frosting can easily be made in advance. Then, set out the plates of cookies, bottles of frosting, and sprinkles for the kids to decorate. Hope you all have a Happy Valentine’s Day this year!


Download Recipe PDF
(Right click to save PDF to your desktop. See PDF download directions.)

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
½ cup light corn syrup
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 ½ tsp vanilla
1 egg, beaten
4 cups flour
¼ tsp salt

Directions

Valentinecookie Creambutter
Cream the butter in a stand mixer on high speed.
Valentinecookie Sugar
Beat in the sugar until dissolved, about 3-5 minutes. Mix in the corn syrup, lemon juice, vanilla, and egg.
Valentinecookie Addflour
Sift together the 4 cups of flour and ¼ teaspoon salt; mix into the butter mixture.
Valentinecookie Scrapesides
Scrape the sides of the bowl down as needed. Chill the dough for one hour.
Valentinecookie Rolldough
Remove 1/3 of dough at a time from the refrigerator and roll to 1/8″ thickness. Cut into desired shapes.
Valentinecookie Cookiesheet
Place 1″ apart on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough. Bake at 350° F for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges. Cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack. Cool completely before decorating.


Powdered Sugar Glaze

This frosting will harden upon standing, giving cookies a glazed surface.

Ingredients

2½ cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp milk or half-and-half
2 Tbsp butter, softened
½ tsp almond extract
Food coloring
optional

Directions

In small mixer bowl, combine the powdered sugar, milk, butter, and extract. Beat at medium speed until smooth, adding additional milk, if necessary, to reach the desired spreading consistency. Color with food coloring, if desired.
Valentinecookie Bottles
Pour the frosting into small squeeze bottles for easy decorating. Frost the cookies. Let stand until hardened.
Decorating Tips:
Valentinecookie Tip1
First, outline the cookie shape with your chosen color of glaze. Next, fill the outline with additional frosting until the outline is filled completely solid. While still wet, add sprinkles, if desired.
Valentinecookie Tip2
For a swirled effect, choose 2 different glaze colors. First, outline the shape with the first color. Then outline the shape again, this time inside the first outline, with the second color. Repeat this process until the entire cookie is filled with alternating colors. Using a toothpick, swirl the 2 colors together.
Download Recipe PDF
(Right click to save PDF to your desktop. See PDF download directions.)
About the Author:
author_katiegoodman2.jpg
Katie Goodman resides in New Mexico with her husband and two children (a 4-year-old boy and an 18-month-old girl). Learning in the kitchen, eating, trying new recipes, and sharing them with friends and loved ones are some of Katie’s favorite things to do. She wholeheartedly believes that part of the goodness in life is enjoying good food with good friends and family, and goodLife {eats} is a place for her to share what she finds good in the kitchen.


6 thoughts on “Valentine’s Day Vanilla Cut-Out Cookies

  1. Alison says:

    I made these this week for a test run and I have to say, the sugar cookies were the best I’ve ever had!
    I did modify them slightly by adding in one teaspoon of baking soda. It gave them the extra rise I was looking for and they got rave reviews from everyone who ate them.
    I cooked the cookies for 10 minutes and they were perfect.
    The icing needed some work however.
    I followed the instructions exactly, but it did not look as shiny and beautiful as the photo. I also found it was a bit hard to use to decorate. I would suggest spending the $2 at the grocery store for pre-made icing.
    I also thought the almond extract wasn’t very tasty. Perhaps 1/2 a Tsp was too much. I would use Vanilla next time, or create a cream cheese icing.
    All in all, I found this recipe inspiring and I will surely make them again.
    Thank you for posting it!

  2. Ladibug says:

    I tried this recipe tonight and I’m sad to say it was really disappointing. I followed the cookie recipe exactly and the cookies turned our really, really bland. I’m actually going to toss them and make some with a different recipe. I even used vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract which often gives a stronger flavor but they were still bland.
    The frosting ended up being fine, but after adding in the first cup of powdered sugar I realized the ratios are wrong. There’s no way in heck this frosting will turn out as shiny as the photos. I’ve made a lot of cookies with royal icing and this just not right. They need corn syrup in order to be shiny and there is too much powdered sugar for the liquid for these to be spreadable.
    I feel terrible leaving negative review but these just really disappointed me. The pictures up there look great and mine LOOK good but the taste is something to be desired.

  3. Alejandra says:

    I made a batch of this and totally loved them… I used a different recipe for the icing, they are not shiny but they look great (See for yourself! http://flic.kr/p/9i5uxC )
    I used honey instead of corn syrup because is not something I used on a regular basis and they smell delicious!
    I made this to bring to work tomorrow because I’m a bundle of love and my boyfriend is halfway across the world so I need to spread the love somewhere! ;)

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