Valentine Sugar Cookie Recipe with Free Printable Gift Tag
This Valentine Sugar Cookie Recipe is perfect for making these darling cookies with royal icing for Valentine’s Day! Grab the free printable tag below – it makes giving these as a gift super easy.
I’m a huge fan of creating treats for every occasion, especially delicious ones like these. These classic sugar cookies are perfect for taking to your next Valentine event or party!
Too busy to make this right away? Pin it for later! Pin this easy recipe to your favorite board on Pinterest and it will be waiting there when you’re ready.
Sugar cookie dough is super versatile and easy to make with only a few ingredients from the grocery store. Start with butter, granulated sugar and all purpose flour.
Before you get started make sure that you have everything that you need to make and decorate these cookies. I found our cookie cutters and icing bottles at Michaels but you can also order them from Amazon below.
This post contains affiliate links.
Sugar cookie supplies:
- KitchenAid Stand Mixer
- Baking sheets
- Parchment paper
- Rolling pin
- Mixing bowls
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Cookie cutters
- Icing bottles
- Wire cooling rack
- Cookie scribe or toothpick
This is my grandma’s classic sugar cookie recipe – time tested and delicious. The only thing that I have changed over the years is swapped out shortening for butter.
How to make sugar cookies:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 4 Tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
Tip: Pre-made Pillsbury refrigerated sugar cookie dough can be used to create these cookies as well. Simply add 1/4 cup of flour to the dough, combine well and roll as directed. I love quick mom hacks like this!
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl with electric mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine dry ingredients. Add butter, egg and milk and mix until a soft dough forms.
3. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour. This helps to prevent the dough from spreading too much in baking.
4. Dust your surface with flour and use a rolling pin to roll the dough to 1/4″ thickness.
5. Use cookie cutters to cut shapes from the dough. Place the cookies on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
6. Bake until the cookies are lightly brown around the edges, about 7 minutes.
7. Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool.
This recipe makes approximately 72, 2″ cookies.
Use my Easy Royal Icing Recipe to make the best icing for these cookies! You will need red, pink and white royal icing.
Be sure to set aside enough time to decorate the cookies, you may even want to spread it over a few days. When adding details it’s important to wait until the layer of flooded icing is completely dry otherwise the icing may crack and the colors will bleed.
Royal icing tips:
- If the icing is too hard, add more water one drop at a time.
- If the icing is too soft, add more powdered sugar one teaspoon at a time.
- Icing can be stored at room temperature in a an airtight container for up to two weeks.
- To use, mix the royal icing with a hand mixer so that it becomes smooth and shiny again.
- Flood consistency is reached when a spoonful dropped onto a flat surface takes 10 – 15 seconds to become completely smooth.
Now for the truly fun part! These instructions will show you how to decorate these “LOVE” cookies like I did but honestly, the sky is the limit. Have fun with this!
How to decorate valentine sugar cookies:
Additional supplies: edible valentine hearts and sprinkles and a black food marker.
1. Outline each cookie with a line of pink icing.
2. Flood the center of each cookie with icing. Use a toothpick or scribe to coax icing into corners or spaces.
3. Add festive valentines sprinkles to the top of each cookie before the icing dries.
4. Allow the royal icing to completely dry, at least four hours but overnight is best, before using a food safe marker to write “L” “O” “V” “E” onto each cookie.
5. Flood a few more cookies and add a fun design.
6. Add dots of red icing to the pink icing on a cookie before it dries. Add stripes of pink icing to the red icing on a cookie. Pull the toothpick through the stripes, up and down, several times to create a zig zag pattern.
This method is called wet on wet icing. Allow the icing to completely harden for at least four hours before packaging or storing the cookies.
Be sure to check out some of our other Valentines Day treat recipes like these; Valentine Oreo Cake Balls, Valentine Chocolate Bark, Valentine Cookie Bars, Homemade Valentine Pop Tarts or Valentine Snack Mix!
This post contains affiliate links.
Some of my baking essentials:
- I love using this non-stick bakeware for all of my baking.
- These silicone mitts are perfect for grasping hot pans and baking dishes.
- This Henckel Knife is my favorite for slicing and dicing in the kitchen.
- These parchment paper bags are perfect for packaging and these large Rubbermaid food storage containers are great for storing baking in the freezer.
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Valentine Sugar Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup butter room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 4 Tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- 1. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- 2. In a large bowl with an electric mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine dry ingredients. Add butter, egg, milk and extract. Mix on medium speed until a soft dough forms.
- 3. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour. This helps to prevent the dough from spreading when baked.
- 4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- 5. Dust your surface with flour and use a rolling pin to roll the dough to 1/4" thickness on the floured surface.
- 6. Use cookie cutters to cut shapes from the dough. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet.
- 7. Bake until the cookies are lightly brown around the edges, about 7 minutes.
- 8. Place the cookies on a wire rack to cool before decorating with royal icing.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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These are very pretty. I saw your video on Facebook and had to come find your icing recipe for flooding the cookies. Pinned
Thanks so much! Enjoy :)