These Valentine cookies are not only pretty, but most importantly they are delicious. They are made of a lemon shortbread and decorated with a lemon icing. Often these stylized cookies give way to aesthetics and forget that the flavor still rules supreme. These are both tasty and gorgeous!
Order my new cookbook, Zoë Bakes Cookies, now!
Did you know that Saint Valentine’s Day dates back to Pope Gelasius in 500 AD, not the Hallmark Cards of 1910? The original holiday was a religious one, with nothing to do with romance, flowers, chocolate or red royal icing. The modern Valentine’s Day must have been recreated by a pastry chef. It is an excuse to make sweet, pretty, heart-shaped treats like this Valentine cookies. There really isn’t another time of the year when heart-shaped desserts are permissible. It’s a shame really, but Valentine’s Day owns the shape, so we must take advantage of the opportunity.
As you know I am trying to thin out my baking pantry of all the loot various companies send me to test out and review. This scale is one of them. I think it is lovely and it works well, but I have several scales and honestly I prefer digital. This scale by Eat Smart can weigh up to 11-pounds, has a nice big hopper (bowl) and is stylish in a retro way. The down side is that is requires a kitchen that can handle its formidable size. This company also makes a tiny Digital Scale
How to Make Heart Shaped Valentine Cookies
See me make these step by step here and find the full recipe at the end of this post!
To make the Valentine cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
Remove the rind, with some of the pith and chop it up into small pieces. Grind it up in a coffee or Spice-and-Nut Grinder
Until it is in very fine pieces. It should almost be powdery. If there are large chunks the cookies will not hold together when rolled out.
In a food processor grind some regular granulated sugar for about 1 minute and then measure out 1/2 cup of the superfine sugar for your recipe. The rest of the sugar can be saved for another recipe.
Beat the butter in a stand mixer with the Beater Blade Paddle Attachment 
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.
Knead very lightly until it is a smooth ball.
Use your favorite cookie cutters.
Dust the dough with flour and roll to about a scant 1/4-inch thick rectangle. The dough does not need to chill first.
You can re-roll the scraps once, beyond that it starts to get tough.
Position the cookies on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly golden. If you are baking both sheets at once you will want to switch from top to bottom and back to front. Cool on a rack.
Meanwhile make the royal icing:
Combine all the meringue powder, cream of tartar, confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice in a stand mixer. It will be quite thick.
To decorate the cookies follow these instructions.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature (see note)
- 1/2 cup superfine sugar see notes
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- rind of 1 lemon see step-by-step instructions in the blog post
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour measured by stirring flour and then using scoop and sweep method
- 1/8 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
- Remove the lemon rind, with some of the pith and chop it up into small pieces. Grind it up in a coffee or Spice-and-Nut Grinder until it is in very fine pieces. It should almost be powdery. If there are large chunks the cookies will not hold together when rolled out.
- In a food processor, grind some regular granulated sugar for about 1 minute and then measure out 1/2 cup of the superfine sugar for your recipe. The rest of the sugar can be saved for another recipe.
- Beat the butter in a stand mixer with the Beater Blade Paddle Attachment on medium-high, until it is smooth. Gradually add the sugar, then vanilla and lemon, mixing until light in color and texture, about 3 minutes. In thirds, add the flour and salt. Mix until the dough comes together and cleans the sides of the bowl.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead very lightly until it is a smooth ball. Use your favorite cookie cutters. Dust the dough with flour and roll to about a scant 1/4-inch thick rectangle. The dough does not need to chill first. You can re-roll the scraps once, beyond that it starts to get tough.
- Position the cookies on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly golden. If you are baking both sheets at once you will want to switch from top to bottom and back to front. Cool on a rack.
Icing
- Combine all the meringue powder, cream of tartar, confectioner's sugar and lemon juice in a stand mixer. It will be quite thick.
my favorite valentine’s treat will always be CHOCOLATE! This year I’m thinking chocolate cakepops – just haven’t decided what shape yet!
hi! I love your giveaway. I already have a scale, but this one is pretier 🙂 well, too bad i’m from europe…
for valentine, I expect a ring hidden in a box of chocolate. :))
cheers,
codruta, from timisoara, romania
I love chocolate covered caramels! YUM! This scale would nicely compliment my red Kitchen Aid mixer, my other favorite Valentines gift!
I think chocolate…chocolate anything> This year, I am going to make peppermint patties!
It’s not particularly Valentine but I love Tiramisu. I guess we always end up at an Italian restaurant on V-Day.
My favorite Valentine’s Dessert happens to be anything chocolate, like a molten chocolate cake. YUM!
Amazing cookies….to me, red velvet cupcakes are ideal as a valentine’s day dessert..Thanks for this giveaway…
As much as I love the look of pretty pink and red confections, it’s really the rich, chocolate desserts have my heart on Valentine’s day!
Your cookies are an inspiration! Dessert on Valentine’s day…hmmm, will have to start a new tradition and make decorated heart cookies.
favorite valentines dessert.. chocolate molten lava cakes. YUM! topped with a bit of whipping cream
Beautiful cookies, thank you for sharing them with us. I love the touch of lemon that is added to them!
My favorite Valentine dessert is molten lava cake. Yum!
My favorite dessert for Valentine’s is a strawberry tart. I LOVE IT. But for my kids cookies are the best. By the way I love the scale.
Those cookies do look wonderful. This may be my new favorite since I’m not really a chocolate kind of a gal. Give me something buttery and crispy any day. And, these cookies bring back fond memories of decorating cookies for any and every holiday when my daughter was little. Now, she eschews sweets for more healthy options (not fun for mom!). Would love, love, love the scale. It would match my 1953 General Electric Stratoliner oven!
… “an item in red in each room brings luck”, so says Confucius aka my daughter
That scale is super cute! And those cookies? They sound amazing. I love to make heart shaped food, but your right, they only really seem to fit during Valentine’s Day. 🙂
If I let my kids look at the photos in this post, I will definitely have to make these cookies very soon! 😉 My fave dessert for Valentine’s day has to be some kind of chocolate cake: molten, layered with frosting or a gorgeous bundt cake sprinkled with icing sugar, but it has to be chocolate!
Those cookies look delicious! I have yet to find a recipe for sugar cookies that come out nice, these look like a good one to try!
As for my favorite Valentine’s dessert, I have to agree with all of the chocolate talk.
I think this year I’ll make some wacky cake and top with some tasty strawberry or cherry jam.
I think the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert would be a mini yellow Smith Island cake (it’s a layer cake which is baked with each thin layer in its own pan- I usually do 9-12 layers) with a traditional thick, gooey chocolate glaze. But instead of the typical candy bits in the layers I would sub strawberries, and maybe add some strawberry glaze as a top layer. The problem with a Smith Island cake is that they are massive, but I can’t imagine anything better than one the right size for two people… it’s just the most dense, lush, moist, chocolatey deliciousness. And it looks pretty.
It’s a little sad that I want that scale more for it’s beauty than it’s usefulness. But I still want it!
My favorite sweet for Valentine’s Day is store bought rather than homemade – m&ms. Every year my dad would buy us each one pound of m&ms – and have them laid out on the kitchen table when we came down in the morning. It was the only holiday that he bought for – my mom handled everything else.
The cookies look yummy! Our favorite valentine dessert has to have chocolate in it.
My favorite valentine’s dessert is tiramisu.
On Valentine’s Day I feel like it has to be chocolate! I love the eatsmart company. I ordered a bathroom scale from them last week and they included a nifty personal tape measure. I’m sure I would love this scale! The red would go perfect with my retro kitchen.
The scale is cute! My favorite Valentine’s dessert would definitely involve chocolate – probably a truffle!
Your sugar cookies are beautiful! My favorite Valentines Day dessert would have to be made with lots of chocolate. I’m thinking a chocolate cake with ganache frosting.
Okie Dokie….where do I sign up. Well, I love hearts and who doesn’t love a shiny red scale to “love up” their kitchen. I’ll happily take it off your hands and free up that space. The “love scales” can live with me :”)
Thank you for sharing a fun recipe too. I’m giving it a whirl tomorrow since I will soon be buried in way too many inches of snow. ugh
AmyRuth