Description
These Stained Glass Valentine Heart Cookies feature colorful melted candy centers surrounded by soft, buttery red sugar cookie dough. Perfect for Valentine’s Day, these charming cookies showcase a beautiful stained-glass effect when baked, making them both visually stunning and delicious. The dough is infused with vanilla and lightly tinted with red gel food coloring for a festive look, while the crushed hard candies melt to create translucent candy ‘windows’.
Ingredients
Scale
Cookie Dough
- ¾ Cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ Cup granulated sugar
- ¼ Teaspoon sea salt
- 2 eggs, at room temperature and beaten
- 1 ½ Teaspoons vanilla extract
- Red gel food coloring (amount to desired shade)
- 2 ½ Cups + ¼ Cup all-purpose flour
Filling
- 2 Cups hard candy, crushed into small pieces
Instructions
- Prepare the Cookie Dough: Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together softened butter, granulated sugar, and sea salt until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides as needed and continue mixing.
- Add Eggs and Vanilla: Mix in the beaten eggs and vanilla extract until fully combined, about 1 minute.
- Incorporate Flour and Color: Gradually add 2 ½ cups of the all-purpose flour while mixing on medium-low speed until well blended. As you add the flour, drop in a few drops of red gel food coloring until you achieve your desired shade of red.
- Chill the Dough: Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, forming a ball (or divide into two smaller balls for easier handling), and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to firm up.
- Preheat the Oven: Set your oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Prepare for Rolling: Remove the dough from the fridge. Lightly flour a clean countertop and turn the dough out onto it.
- Roll Out Dough: Sprinkle a little flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin to roll it out evenly to about ¼ inch thickness, adding flour as needed to prevent sticking.
- Cut Out Cookie Panes: Use a large cookie cutter to cut out heart-shaped “panes” of dough. Transfer the cutouts to the prepared baking sheet.
- Create Candy Windows: Use a smaller cookie cutter to cut out the centers from the larger hearts, removing these smaller shapes carefully. Save the smaller cutouts to bake separately or to re-roll into additional cookies.
- Fill with Crushed Candy: Fill each cookie cutout’s center with crushed hard candy, spreading it into an even, level layer without mounding to prevent overflow.
- Bake the Cookies: Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes until the edges turn lightly golden and the candy centers have fully melted and formed translucent stained-glass windows.
- Cool Completely: Remove the cookies from the oven and allow them to cool completely on the baking sheet. This ensures the candy centers harden without breaking.
Notes
- Crush candy evenly into small pieces to ensure smooth, even melting of the centers.
- Do not overfill with candy; keep it level with the dough to avoid overflow during baking.
- Work quickly when rolling and cutting dough; if it becomes too soft, chill it again to maintain clean cuts.
- Always line baking sheets with parchment paper to prevent melted candy from sticking and for easy cleanup.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 150
- Sugar: 15g
- Sodium: 60mg
- Fat: 7g
- Saturated Fat: 4.5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 20g
- Fiber: 0.5g
- Protein: 2g
- Cholesterol: 30mg
