The Best Valentine Sugar Cookies
Get the recipe for The Best Valentine Sugar Cookies ever! Made with simple ingredients and simple instructions, this sugar cookie recipe will soon become your favorite! We also have a homemade icing recipe that is easy to make and looks and tastes great.
It’s a tradition in my house to make heart shaped cut out sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day, and these Valentine sugar cookies are simply the best.
I mean, we make this sugar cookie recipe for every holiday!
We get our love for sugar cookies from our mom. Who in turn got it from her mother. So the tradition of making sugar cookies for the holidays (Valentine’s Day included) runs deep!
Our mom has even gifted each of her grandchildren this darling children’s book about love and sugar cookies!
We shared this recipe with you for Christmas, and honestly, it’s too good to not share again! This year, I made five different shades of pink to frost my cookies with. These ombre cuties are gorgeous on a platter and even cuter in a Ball jar to give away as a gift.
You can download the “How Sweet It Is” label . Read more to see the recipe for the best Valentine sugar cookies and the tempting photos 🙂 I’ve already eaten almost all the cookies…
We also have made mini colorful versions of these cookies as well as a modern color block look!
Read more for The Best Valentine Sugar Cookies recipe.
The Best Valentine Sugar Cookies Recipe
Best Cookie Sheet
This is the absolute BEST cookie sheet to use for making big batches of sugar cookies.
Wiltons Mega Cookie Sheet (non-stick) – it is HUGE! Depending on cookie cutter, you can fit about 28 cookies on one cookie sheet. Love this thing!
We love this heart shaped cookie cutter as well!
The key to soft sugar cookies
The key to a good sugar cookie in our opinion is that it is soft and not thin and crispy. (although some love the thin and crispy cookie) And the biggest reason to get the soft cookie is to (in our opinion) under cook the cookie. This means do not let the edges start to brown. You also want to roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch (or more).
Favorite TIP: Make dough ahead of time
Another thing we love about this recipe is that you can make the dough ahead of time. You can refrigerate or freeze the dough. If you refrigerate, wrap in plastic wrap and leave in fridge for 24 hours. So it is easy to make the day ahead.
This feels like such a time saver. Honestly, most of the time we make homemade cookies, we made the dough ahead of time and keep in the fridge. It is easier to scoop or roll and cut this way!
Or very often our mom makes the sugar cookie dough, wraps in plastic wrap keeps it in the freezer for up to 6-8 weeks. Just make sure and thaw in fridge the day before you will use the dough. You can just pop it in the fridge.
Why do you chill the sugar cookie dough before baking?
This is a super common baking trick. This helps in rolling out the dough, cutting with cookie cutter and then not having the dough spread out too much when baking. Essentially it helps the cookie hold its shape in the oven. We do this for most homemade cookie dough.
Can you freeze sugar cookies
A great thing about making homemade cut out sugar cookies is that you can make them ahead of time. Often we will make the dough, cut out the cookies and bake a week prior to Valentine’s Day. You can keep in an air tight container in the refrigerator for a week and in the freezer for up to three months.
Again, this is a time saving tip that we love! Ok, now for the recipe…
This recipe makes roughly 3 dozen cookies. But this all depends on the size cookie cutter you use and how thick you make the cookies.
Valentine Sugar Cookie Ingredients
1 cup butter, room temperature (we use unsalted butter)
1 cup sugar (granulated)
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
1 egg
1 teaspoon water (a bit more if needed)
3 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
How to make sugar cookies
Cream butter, sugar and vanilla.
Add egg and water. Beat until light and fluffy.
In a new bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Sift together.
Blend dry mixture into creamed mixture, divide dough in half. Wrap each half in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill for one hour.
When you are ready to roll your dough, make sure and flour your working surface. If your dough feels too sticky, add a little bit of flour. If your dough seems to dry, add a tiny bit of water and kneed.
*Some people ask about the dough being a little crumbly. If this is the case, too much flour was probably used. So just add a bit more water to the dough.
Roll your dough on the floured surface with a rolling pin. We like to roll our about a quarter inch thick.
Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Watch them carefully. Take out of oven before edges turn brown.
Note – every oven cooks differently. Some ovens bake better at 350 instead of 375. Some ovens bake the cookies great at 375 for 6 minutes, while others bake at 350 for 8 minutes.
Homemade Icing recipe
Start with 2 cups of powdered sugar.
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Of course you can use more butter if you would like!
Stir in teaspoons of milk one at a time until you reach desired consistency.
Ombre Icing Effect
To get the ombre frosting effect for these cookies, all you have to do is make five different shades of pink frosting. I just portion out five bowls of icing, then add some pink food coloring bit by bit to each bowl until I achieve the colors I’m looking for.
Then frost those sweet Valentine sugar cookies up! We love using the gel food coloring to get the rich and bright colors.
We hope The Best Valentine Sugar Cookies will become a Valentine’s tradition for your family!
More Valentine’s Recipes and Crafts
Make sure and check out more of our Valentine’s content HERE.
We would love to see your cookies! Tag us on instagram @aliceandlois
all photos by Melissa for alice & lois design studios, all rights reserved.
i love the colors!
Thanks Dina!
So cute! I love that you guys have a valentines day tradition.
Thanks Jess!
These are absolutely beautiful! You have gotten me so inspired!!
Thanks Emanuelle!
I love the idea of decorating them ombre! A stack of ombre pink hearts sounds like a perfect gift!
Thanks Betsy!
Just a question before I try these cookies out…the “t” in the recipe (ex. 1 1/2 t vanilla, 1 t water) stands for Teaspoon not Tablespoon right? Just want to make sure I have the right measurement!!
Yes, t is for teaspoon.
Cookie recipe makes terrible cookies.
sorry to hear you did not like the recipe.
I’ve tried many sugar cookie recipes, and I can say that this is my absolute favourite!! Turns out perfect every time. And tastes so good! The ombre is a great idea! Will be coming back to this again and again – thank you!! 🙂
SO glad you like it! Enjoy!
Hey i was just wondering if it was tablespoon or teaspoon?
The lowercase is for teaspoon. Have fun making the cookies!
I was wondering about how many this makes?
You can count on four dozen. I like to roll mine out thick, but you can roll them out to your desired thickness.
Too dry and only made 2 dozen
I’m sorry to hear this. You can always add a bit more water to get the consistency right.
So cute! Do you have a print out for your mason jar tags!?
Thanks for asking! Here you go…
http://bit.ly/1iQ7fDu
Just tried to make these tonight. Not sure what went wrong but the dough would not roll out, just kept crumbling. 🙁
It sounds like the fat (butter) wasn’t distributed throughout the dough. Also, this could happen if the dough is still too cold. Good luck!
Made these and they are great! Soft and yummy!!
Glad you like em!
Hiya, I was just windering if the oven temperature is in celcius? Or is it farenheit?
It’s in Fahrenheit. Have fun baking the cookies!
I think it needs another egg:). BTW I’m from CO! I love Crested Butte!!
I use extra large eggs with this recipe, I think that helps. You could try that, or adding another egg. Let me know how that works 🙂
And fun to hear you live in CO. We just got hammered with snow… it’s been beautiful!
–Melissa
Does it matter whether the butter is salted or unsalted?
No, my mom swears by salted butter, but I use unsalted in mine, and I think they are still divine!
These were truly THE BEST! These are super easy to make, they taste delicious and look like you visited the bakery! PERFECT! Thanks ladies.
Glad you love them as much as we do!
I baked these without the icing for valentines day and they were a big hit with my coworkers! I’m going to bake them again for st. Pattys but cut them in shamrock shapes. I would like to make them green. Would adding food coloring have any negative effect on the dough?
You should be fine with the food coloring… I’m sure they will be so cute!
I made these yesterday and they turned out perfect! The edges were the perfect crispness and the middle was nice and soft! Everyone loved ’em- Thanks!
Oh good… aren’t they just the best!
Thanks for sharing our recipe. Glad you enjoy!
Sara
Just so you know, I used this recipe for valentines hearts and I’m using it today for halloween ghosts and it’s still delicious! I’m a pretty terrible chef but these are so simple, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for letting us know Sarah! Enjoy.
Happy Halloween!
Sara & Melissa
hi! loved this recipe but when i baked them they tasted a little too floury to me. do you recommend anything i can do differently the second time i bake them? thanks!
maybe add a tad ore sugar?
I love these. Would you please tell me how thick you roll yours out? You say thick, but how thick? 1/4″?
Hi Brenda,
We roll ours out to 1/4 inch. Happy Valentine’s… and enjoy the cookies!
–Melissa
Wonderful recipe! Great dough to work with….perfect for cookie cutters. I over made dough (not knowing how many cookies I wanted to make). How long to you think they’ll stay fresh in the freezer?
I would say up to a few months…
Enjoy!
i’VE made these cookies a dozen times -always turn out perfect. thank you for the recipe!
Thanks Megan! So glad you enjoy the recipe.
Hey! So far the cookies and icing are amaaaazing! For some reason my icing is not hardening on the cookies and remaining “liquidy”. Any suggestions on how to fix this? I tried refrigerating to see if the icing would harden and now the cookies are cold 🙁 HELP!!!
I would recommend adding more powered sugar to the icing. And you want to ice the cookies once they are cooled completely. Hope this helps!
These look pretty and delicious! I’m going to try and make them, hope mine turn just like yours…thanks for sharing!
Hope you love them as much as we do!
What did you use to make the ombre pinks?
I just used gel pink food coloring to create five different shades of pink 🙂
hi! I’m getting ready to make these bad boys but I had a question about the icing which may sound silly but I don’t see anywhere on the ingredients indicating anything about the coloring …. please do enlighten me as I am rookie at this 🙂
Hi Rose, To get the ombre frosting effect for these cookies, all you have to do is make five different shades of pink frosting. I just portion out five bowls of icing, then add pink food coloring bit by bit to each bowl until I achieve the colors I’m looking for.
oooooooh! well thank you so very much for clearing that up for me 😀
Just made these for valentine’s day and they turned out perfect! They are so yummy!
So glad! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Hello there! I already baked these a couple of times and always turned out great! I want to make them as a guest favor in my wedding so I was just wondering how many days would they stay fresh once I bake them.
Thank you for sharing..
Glad you like the cookie recipe! I think they stay soft for 3 days. I’ve also frozen them too.
I love this recipe. Thank you soooo much. I would like to make these ahead of time. Like a month. Can j freeze them. Do I freeze the dough? Can I cook a month ahead and freeze? Can I frost cooked cookies and freeze? Sorry for so many questions. Trying to save time for my busy month. ?
You can definitely freeze the dough. I prefer to freeze the dough and then thaw and bake off, rather than bake the cookies and freeze. So glad you love the cookies!
Just wondering if I can chill the dough for longer than an hour? Like make the dough the night before and then cook the next day. Thanks!
Yes, chill it for a day if you’d like.
Love these cookies!
Does the frosting dry well enough for stacking?
It does, but it’s always good to put wax paper between layers 🙂
So the flour, is it self rising or all purpose?
We use all purpose 🙂
Does this frosting dry well? I want to be able to ship the cookies.
It does dry, but when shipping these cookies, we always put wax paper between the layers of cookies. Enjoy!
We have been buried in ice .snow. and freezing temps. I’ve been shoveling for ever. The last month and a half in Stevensville.Mt. I decided to try your wonderful cookies. So happy I did. Easy and they taste wonderful. Thanks you !!! Georgia
So glad you love the cookies! And stay warm!
These look Delicious! Do you roll the dough out to 1/4′ thickness?
Yes! But sometimes I like to keep them a bit thicker, then cooking a little longer.
I’m going to try to make these but how did you frost them so nicely?? Did you make a border around the cookies first? Looks so pretty!!
I don’t do a border on the cookies, I’m just careful to keep the frosting on top of the cookie and not falling of the sides. I like to make my frosting a little bit on the thicker side so it doesn’t drip, that helps 🙂
My dough turned out really crumbly too but I haven’t chilled it yet, what should I do?!?!
Hi Traci, try adding a bit of water, a teaspoon at a time until it’s not crumbly. Then form into a disc and wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
I can’t wait to make these for V-day! What size cookies cutter did you use and how many did it make?
I use a three inch heart cookie cutter. The recipe will make 3-4 dozen cookies, depending on how thick or thin you roll the dough out.
I want to make these cookies for valentines for my kids school. Would the icing hold up in individual bags? I don’t want it to smear everywhere.
If you want to bag them individually, I think you should do a royal icing instead.
I am 12 yrs old and made these for my class on valentines day, they all loved them! Thanks for the recipe!!
Lola – your comment just made our day! Glad that your classmates loved them. xo
These sound and look sooooo good. Thanks for sharing
Loved this recipe! Tried it out today and I’m very happy with how they turned out. Thanks 🙂
Yay! They are our favorite cookies!
GREAT recipe! I used 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste and they were wonderful! The cookies are quite sweet could stand alone without icing even.
Love the idea of using the vanilla bean paste!
Hi Melissa,
I just finished using your recipe and I have to say that it was amazing! Every single cookie turned out perfectly and I totally love the ombre idea. I also love the way you displayed the recipe, I am in information design and I am totally using this as some inspiration for an assignment. Thanks so much for the recipe 🙂
So glad you like them! Thanks for the sweet words.
So beautiful! What size heart shape are you using?
I use a three inch heart cookie cutter.
Hey I just tried these cookies out as well. Well a couple days ago. I had to leave so I left the dough to chill overnight…it was rock hard in the morning. Left it out ALL day and ALL night to today and it was still rock hard. Broke it apart and it was VERY crumbly. Anyway to salvage it?
I am sorry to hear you are having trouble with the dough. We haven’t had that happen. I would recommend kneading the dough and adding a tiny bit of water.
I baked these at 350° for 9 min and they were perfect. I never bake cookies at 375°? Haven’t iced them yet, but excited to try the ombre look!
How long can I keep the dough in the fridge before baking?
I would recommend only a few days.
I have made your recipe and it turned out wonderful – however I found that the cookies could be sweeter – would it have a negative affect on the dough if I added an extra 1/4 of a cup of sugar ?
Glad the recipe turned out for you. I am not sure about adding the additional sugar, my assumption is that it would be ok…. Sara
What does the t mean before the word vanilla, water, baking soda and salt?
the small t stands for teaspoon
The dough was dry so I added another egg like someone here suggested and they turned out perfect! Yummy!
I made these cookies and they were a success, Everyone loved them. I didn’t do the icing sugar icing I did melted chocolate on half of the heart with sprinkles on some of them and drizzled chocolate on the other ones. Really easy recipe and taste great!!!
Love this idea! Glad you liked them.
I have made a lot of sugar cookies but this one was the tastiest! They were so soft and sweet with the icing! Love this recipe, I will be making these again and again! I’m glad I read the comments though because I had to add another egg so It wasn’t crumbly. Once I did that they were perfect!
Hi
Those cookies look cute! Is there a substitute for egg in the cookies recipe? My mom and sis are allergic to eggs ?
We have only ever used eggs – I am sorry, but I am not sure what to recommend. Good luck!
These are the best sugar cookies we’ve ever made! Thanks for the recipe!
Awesome – glad you like em!
Would this work with gluten free 1:1 flour?
We have not made these gluten free before… so I am not sure. Sorry about that. – Sara
Can you make the frosting the nIght before?
We like to make ours when we make the cookies.
Excellent sugar cookie recipe!
Thanks for sharing.
I used regular granulated sugar since the ingredient list did not specify which type of sugar. Now my dough is crumbly & grainy. ? I’m afraid to bake as I’m sure they’re gonna fall apart! Please specify which type of sugar/ flour etc. to use in ingredient list to match the instructions so mistakes don’t happen. So disappointed that I’ll probably have to toss my first batch. 🙁
The dough uses granulated sugar and the homemade frosting uses powdered sugar.
My apologies! I read through the recipe too fast. I realize that the icing requires powdered sugar, not the cookie recipie. Anyways, just whipped up another batch of these cookies: instead of granulated sugar, I used powdered. I added one tablespoon of half & half instead of water. I added an additional egg & two teaspoons of cornstarch. NOW my dough is the PERFECT soft texture! Not crumbly & grainy! Can’t wait to see how they bake up! ?
oh good!
Update: It took me a couple of days to bake all the cookies! I made several batches for a Fun Valentines event 🙂 The first batch – (following the recipie as stated above) the dough was CRUMBLY & difficult to work with. Although, it was sticky enough – it was just SO delicate & it fell apart on me a couple of times. That being said, they did bake well & held their shape. The texture was a bit dry for my preference & taste overall was good. I’m not a huge sugar cookie fan, so for me taste is average.
My second batch (the one I modified) did turn out better! The texture of the dough was MUCH better, certainly easier to work with & buttery SOFT. I think the main reason was the addition of the second egg & substituting the granulated sugar for powdered sugar. They baked well, held their shape & overall texture of the final product was Better than the first batch! ? As for flavor/taste the second batch was same as first – still Yummy! Not my favorite, but tasty.
Third batch I made was dairy free. I made this batch with the same revisions as my second batch – only difference was plant butter in place of regular butter & coconut milk in placed of half & half. These came out beautifully! Soft & yummy?
Overall, I prefer my revisions over original recipie. I still want to tweak it a bit & maybe add a different flavor next time – perhaps a lemon or almond sugar cookie!
Happy Baking!
OMG, these sugar cookies are too cute and delicious! I love the heart shape and the frosting designs. Perfect for Valentine’s Day celebration ?❤️
The structure of this recipe made me crazy, this long introduction on the key to make soft cookies etc. was in my opinion so unnecessarily in the beginning of the recipe. I’d like to see the ingredients listed first so that I don’t have to scroll half an hour just to see what ingredients I need for the cookies. This website needs a better structure. The ingredients first, the instructions second and the additional information later instead of the other way around!! Will try to bake the cookies today!
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The trick of refrigerating the dough beforehand was a game changer for me! They turned out perfect for my daughter’s valentines party. I will say we had a bit of a mess when making the icing and the sugar got everywhere on our refinished hardwood haha, but no harm no foul. Definitely a repeat recipe!