Happy Valentine’s Day! This is one of my favorite holidays. It’s such a happy and fun day. I don't have a Valentine this year, but I love to celebrate the non-romantic love I have with my friends and family.
My mom and I have a long standing tradition of making heart shaped food for Valentine’s Day. As a kid, we always had heart shaped pizza for dinner that day which we would make by hand. (It was a labor of love!) This year, instead of pizza, my mom and I made some heart shaped sugar cookies. (We are not the best cookie decorators so please be gentle.) Although our frosting skills might be lacking, the cookies we made were delicious, so gather your sugar, flour, eggs and butter because these are sure to be a crowd-pleaser.
Chloe is not a fan of Valentine’s Day like I am. She prefers Groundhog’s Day and April Fools day. However, she did like the Valentine's day cookies we whipped up (especially the frosting). She told me that the almond extract adds a nice, nutty contrast to all the sugar so she gave this recipe an 8/10. On the other hand, my mom gives them a 10/10 on account of how she couldn’t stop saying, “These are the best sugar cookies ever!” while eating them.
Notes
Choosing the Right Milk for the Frosting
Most recipes call for full fat milk or heavy cream when making frosting. I've found that you can use whichever milk—or milk substitute—you want and it has little to no effect on the taste or consistency of the frosting. I usually use almond milk because I have that on hand and it tastes amazing! So, use whatever you want; I wont judge you.
Buttercream Frosted Sugar Cookies
Yield: 30 cookies
Cookie Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cookie Cook Time: 8 minutes
Frosting Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 38 minutes
Cookie Ingredients
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
2 tsp baking powder
3 cups all purpose flour
Buttercream Frosting Ingredients
½ cup butter, room temperature
½ Crisco, or other vegetable shortening
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp almond extract
2 lb bag powdered sugar
½ cup milk or cream of choice (see notes)
Cookie Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes.
Then add the egg, vanilla extract and almond extract to the mixture and cream the ingredients together until it is well combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking powder and the flour. Slowly, and in batches, add the flour to the wet ingredients. The dough will be very stiff. If you have a sandy texture and the dough is not coming together, dump the dough onto your work surface and knead with wet hands to combine.
Divide the dough into 2 even batches and roll it out on a floured surface to ¼” thickness.
Cut out your desired shapes and transfer the cut cookies to a baking sheet that has either been lined with parchment paper or with a silicone baking mat.
Knead the scrap dough back into a ball and roll it out again to cut out more cookies. Continue this process with all the remaining dough.
Bake the cookies for 6-8 minutes and allow them to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack.
Frosting Directions
Using a stand mixer, cream together the butter, Crisco vegetable shortening, vanilla extract and almond extract with the whip attachment for 3 minutes.
Next, slowly, and in batches, add the powdered sugar to the mixture. Alternate the additions of powdered sugar with a tablespoon or two of the milk or cream of your choice.
Using your best judgement, adjust the consistency of the frosting by adding more milk or cream to thin out the frosting, or by adding more powdered sugar to stiffen the frosting.
Add food coloring if desired.
Once the cookies have completely cooled, frost the cookies with loved ones and enjoy!
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