Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies
Take your favorite conversation hearts Valentine candy and turn them into these fun Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies. This Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookie recipe is “rly sweet”.
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I love sugar cookies! Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and heart shaped sugar cookies are in order to celebrate. This heart sugar cookies recipe remind me of my childhood.
Baker Annie (aka my mama) makes the best sugar cookies. She would always be involved in whatever I did and was often a classroom mom throughout the years. When Valentine’s Day rolled around, she would make each classmate a big old Valentine’s Day Heart Sugar cookie personalized with their name. Talk about special. She is the best!
Conversation Heart Cookies are a fun take on the famous heart-shaped Valentine’s Day candies. This easy sugar cookie recipe is also a great way to get kids involved in the kitchen
How To Make Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies
Materials Needed For Conversation Heart Cookies:
Heart-shaped cookie cutters ( I like the 2.5-3 inch size)
Wilton Royal Icing Mix (I also included a recipe to make your own from scratch)
Toothpick or skewer
How To Decorate Sugar Cookies
Gel Vs Liquid Food Coloring: Water based or liquid food coloring will change the consistency of your icing when working with them. As an industry standard when working on decorated cookies, gel or powder colors are the preferred.
Royal Icing Tips & Tricks
Royal icing dries hard when uncovered. During the non-mixing moments and coloring you should keep a wet paper towel over the royal icing until it is inside of the piping bag.
Royal Icing should not be too stiff, nor too loose. Make sure you follow the directions on the royal icing mix and do an icing consistency test:
How To test your royal icing:
Slide the spoon down the center of the bowl, touching the bottom. Count how long it takes the line to disappear from the icing. You want it to take 13-15 seconds. If the icing closes immediately your icing is too loose and will run off the cookie.
If the icing is too loose, add more of the stiff royal icing or add SIFTED powdered sugar to thicken it up. The powdered or icing sugar must be sifted to minimize clumps in the icing coming out of the piping bags.
How to easily and quickly fill your piping bags:
Using a tall cup, place the piping bag inside of the cup, making sure you flatten the tip of the bag downward on the cup. Scoop or pour the icing into the bag making sure not to get icing on the overhang of the piping bag on the outside of the cup.
Lift the side of the cup straight up, press out any air and tie the bags in a knot, with bag ties or seal them with a rubber band or something similar, to keep the icing from coming out the incorrect end of the bag.
Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies Decorating Tips
Color royal icing as many colors as you would like, we chose pink, orange, green, blue, and yellow. Remember to lighten up the color to a pastel, you will need to add white gel food coloring.
Fill each of the piping bags with their respective colors and seal off the open end.
Cut the tip slightly and test how the icing flows out the bag. Remember to cut a small hole in the tip first, then gradually make it larger. If you cut too much off at once, you will have to create a new bag.
Once you have a flow of icing that does not hurt your hands and is easily managed, outline the cookie with icing.
With a little more pressure add icing to the center of the cookie. Use a toothpick or skewer to move the icing around on the cookie.
Tip: You want the icing to be puffy and not flat on the cookie. Place newly flooded cookies on a baking sheet to dry.
Tip: Place the cookies in front of a fan to speed up the drying process.
Tip: If you own a dehydrator, place it on the lowest temperature setting and place the cookies inside the dehydrator for 30 mins, then in front of a fan for an additional 2-3 hours.
Icing will be hard to the touch when cookies are ready for the next step. The drying time can take anywhere from 2-6 hours, depending on your weather. If you live in a moisture rich area, allow for a longer drying time. If it is raining, allow for an extended drying period.
After the icing has dried:
Use the Pink Wilton Food Writers to write your love notes onto the cookies. The pink is the closest to mimicking the actual Conversation Heart cookies, but any color writer will work. Edible food markers will dry out faster than a regular marker so please keep the tops on when not in use.
FUN VALENTINE’S DAY CRAFTS & CARDS TO MAKE
MORE VALENTINE’S DAY RECIPES TO MAKE
Save Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies for later. Pin the image below to your favorite Pinterest board.
Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- Sugar Cookie Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- Royal Icing Ingredients
- 4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
- 3 tablespoons meringue powder
- 9 tablespoons water (room temperature)
- Gel food coloring
Instructions
To Make Sugar Cookies
- Add butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl and use an electric hand mixer. Beat together until creamy and well-combined.
- Add egg and vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
- In a medium-size bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Gradually add dry ingredients into wet until completely combined.
- Transfer approximately half of the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap. Don't worry about the dough being sticky. It's ok.
- Cover with plastic wrap and mold into a round disk. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough in another piece of cling wrap. Refrigerate dough for at least 2-3 hours.
- When the dough has finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Transfer shapes to prepared baking sheet with a spatula.
- Bake on 350F (175C) for 9-10 minutes or until edges just begin to turn lightly golden brown.
- Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before moving and frosting.
To Make Royal Icing
- In a large bowl use a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment to beat all of the icing ingredients together on high speed for 2 minutes.
- Icing should be like a pancake batter. Slide the spoon down the center of the bowl, touching the bottom. Count how long it takes the line to disappear from the icing. You want it to take 13-15 seconds. If the icing closes immediately your icing is too loose and will run off the cookie. If it’s too thick, add a little more water. If it’s too thin, add a little more sifted confectioners’ sugar.
- Icing will dry in about 2 hours at room temperature. If you’re layering royal icing onto cookies for specific designs and need it to set quickly, place cookies in the refrigerator to help speed it up.
