These are the best cookies to bake for Valentine’s Day: Extra-soft sugar cookies (no chill!), cut into heart shapes, and decorated with the best easy icing.
I have to admit: I’m not a very patient, nor a very good cookie decorator. But I have kids who love it, so I’m a good sport and mess around with icing, food coloring and sprinkles for special holidays.
These Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies are so incredibly easy to bake (just a few simple ingredients for the dough, no chilling!) – so the decorating part can actually be fun and not overwhelming. I love whipping them up with my girls each year for Valentine’s Day!
Ingredients you’ll need
Here is a visual overview of the ingredients in the recipe. Scroll down to the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities!
Ingredient notes
- Butter: Use unsalted butter. Make sure it is very soft before you start making the dough, it makes the mixing a million times easier.
- Cinnamon: This is optional, but I love to add a warm spice when we make these otherwise very classic sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day. It just adds a little extra hint of warmth, which is fitting for a day celebrating love! We extra-love using a Chai spice mix if we have it on hand, but regular old cinnamon is just fine. You can skip it if you prefer. Or use some leftover pumpkin pie spice… which is actually quite similar to Chai spice!
- Food coloring: Use a gel coloring for best results. Feel free to use natural food coloring, just know that most colors don’t get as vibrant as artificial ones.
How to make Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies
1.Start by creaming the wet ingredients: Beat the butter and sugar first, then beat in the egg and vanilla. The butter and sugar should look creamy, but do not overbeat the egg – only beat until it is fully combined into the mixture.
2. Now combine the dry ingredients separately, then add them on top of the creamed mixture. Use your mixer on the lowest setting to combine into a scraggly-looking dough (again, do not overbeat! just combine).
3. Tip out the dough onto a clean countertop, then push it together 5-8 times.
cream wet ingredients 
combine and add dry ingredients combine into scraggly dough push a few times on countertop
4. Roll out the dough and cut out heart shapes. Bake them in batches until just lightly golden, but still very soft (the tops should look dry, no longer shiny/wet from the butter; but the cookies should still be very soft).
5. Cool the cookies on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling tray to cool completly.
6. Stir together all ingredients for the icing and color to your desire. Decorate the cookies, allow the icing to dry before stacking them.
cut out cookies, bake make icing cooled cookies 
decorate!
Recipe tips
- Don’t overwork the dough: I already noted this in the instructions above, but it’s really crucial not to overwork cookie dough. You want it to be well combined and smooth to roll out, but don’t knead it like bread dough or mix it for too long. This will develop the gluten in the flour and turn out tough cookies.
- For rolling: Make sure you don’t roll the cookies too thin, or they won’t be soft. If you prefer, you can dust your work surface with icing sugar instead of flour.
- !! If it takes a long time to cut out the cookies !! If it’s taking you a relatively long time to cut out the cookies (it does for me with the kids), place the cut out cookies on the baking sheet in the fridge (or outdoors if it’s cold where you are) for 5-10 minutes before baking.
Storage tips and freezer instructions
To store baked cookies:
Sugar cookies keep well for about a week in an airtight container on the counter. Undecorated cookies stay fresh for a little longer than decorated ones in my experience.
To store raw cookie dough:
The cookie dough can be made 2 days ahead of time. Keep it covered in the fridge at all times.
Allow it to sit on the counter for 15 minutes before rolling (otherwise it is too hard). Baking time may increase by a couple of minutes due to the dough being chilled.
To freeze raw cookie dough:
Tightly wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap, then label with the name and use-by date (freeze for up to 3 months) before freezing.
When ready to bake, remove the cookie dough from the freezer and thaw in the fridge overnight (I recommend placing it on a plate to catch any water drips). Once thawed, roll out and bake as directed in the recipe.
To freeze baked cookies:
Freeze the cookies undecorated! Place them in a freezer-friendly container, separating layers with sheets of baking parchment. Label with the name and use-by date (freeze for up to 3 months) before freezing.
To defrost, remove the cookies from the container and place them on a wire rack on the counter for a few hours, or until defrosted.
More Valentine’s Day treats
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Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies
Recipe details
Ingredients
For the cookies:
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups white flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon optional; see notes
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the icing:
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons room temperature water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- food coloring of your choice gel coloring works best
Instructions
Make the cookie dough:
- Heat oven to 350°F. Line a few cookie sheets.
- Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well combined. Then add the egg and vanilla and beat just until incorporated (do not overmix egg!).
- Combine flour, baking powder, salt and spices in a separate bowl, then gradually add to butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined into scraggly dough (again, do not overmix!).
Roll out and cut shapes:
- Remove dough from bowl and place on a clean, lightly floured surface. Push together with your hands a few times until a smooth dough forms – do not knead or overwork; or cookies will be tough! Divide dough in half and roll out each half on a lightly floured work surface to ¼ inch thickness.
- Cut out heart shapes with a heart cookie cutter, re-rolling any scraps of dough to cut out more. Place similarly sized cookies on same cookie sheets, 2 inches apart to allow for even baking.
Bake, cool and decorate:
- Bake one sheet of cookies at a time for 8-12 minutes (8 minutes for small cookies, 10 minutes for medium cookies, 12 minutes for large cookies), or until they're lightly golden underneath and feel dry and delicate when lightly touching the top.
- Cool cookies on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- To ice the cookies, stir all ingredients for icing together until smooth. Color as desired (I divided the icing between 3 bowls and colored one red, one pink and left one white). Ice cookies as you like (decorate with sprinkles while icing is wet, if you want). Let dry for a good few hours before packing or boxing up!
Notes
- Butter: Use unsalted butter. Make sure it is very soft before you start making the dough, it makes the mixing a million times easier.
- Cinnamon: This is optional, but I love to add a warm spice when we make these otherwise very classic sugar cookies for Valentine’s Day. It just adds a little extra hint of warmth, which is fitting for a day celebrating love! We extra-love using a Chai spice mix if we have it on hand, but regular old cinnamon is just fine. You can skip it if you prefer. Or use some leftover pumpkin pie spice… which is actually quite similar to Chai spice!
- Don’t overwork the dough: I already noted this in the instructions above, but it’s really crucial not to overwork cookie dough. You want it to be well combined and smooth to roll out, but don’t knead it like bread dough or mix it for too long. This will develop the gluten in the flour and turn out tough cookies.
- For rolling: Make sure you don’t roll the cookies too thin, or they won’t be soft. If you prefer, you can dust your work surface with icing sugar instead of flour.
- !! If it takes a long time to cut out the cookies !! If it’s taking you a relatively long time to cut out the cookies (it does for me with the kids), place the cut out cookies on the baking sheet in the fridge (or outdoors if it’s cold where you are) for 5-10 minutes before baking.
More recipe information
Recipe first published on 02/07/2020. Updated with better text and some new photos on 02/10/2022.
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