MARBLED VALENTINE'S DAY HEART-SHAPED COOKIES are crispy, tender and flaky bites of pink and white cookie goodness in every bite! With just butter, sugar, flour and a dash of color, this could be the easiest cut out cookies you could make and enjoy!

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I love baking cookies and I used to bake up a riot when my boys were small. I would say, they always preferred home baked goodies than store bought ones!

I am not so fond of using colors in my bakes or cooking but this time, I made an exception what with Valentine’s Day coming up, me being in the US this year and of course me being a blogger too!

Pink is usually associated along with red on Valentine's Day to express love and appreciation towards your love, be it your spouse, friend or family. So it was going to be a simple eggless shortbread like cookie with the color of love (pink/light red) marbled throughout.

This cookies come out so well and easy even for a non baker! If you are not into Valentine's Day or do not like coloring your bakes, just use some extra cocoa powder instead of the color and then you have a marbled chocolate cookie.

Or, make a plain cookie; it is the texture and taste that you will be bowled over by!

INGREDIENTS NEEDED TO MAKE MARBLED VALENTINE’S DAY COOKIES:

Butter – Use room temperature, good quality unsalted butter. I love using unsalted butter as then I can control the amount of salt in my bakes

Sugar – Plain white sugar; the finer the grain the better

Flour – Unbleached white all-purpose flour (or maida). I could have used whole wheat flour (which I regularly use in most of my bakes) but this time, decided to settle with plain flour more for the color, crunch and tender crumb as whole wheat flour makes cookies a slight brownish color and dense

Salt – just a dash to balance the sweetness; all bakes need a salty hue which sort of brings out the sweetness more instead of making it all sugary and too sweet; go figure!

Whipping Cream – here this is a substitute for eggs. If you cannot find whipping cream, use plain milk instead.

Vanilla extract or essence

Finally, pink color to get the marbled effect; I have used red color here (as I did not have pink in my pantry), so used up just a couple of drops; add a little at a time, mix and then add more only until you get the color you want.

HOW TO GET THE MARBLED EFFECT AND BAKE COOKIES:

Once you have beaten the butter and sugar and incorporated the rest of the ingredients to make a soft dough, take out 2/3^rd of the dough.
To the remaining 1/3^rd, start adding a few drops of color (or use a toothpick dipped in the color) to dye your dough. Start with one drop and add more as needed. Mix well using the beater until you get the color you want.
At this stage, if you feel that the dough is softening up too much, wrap in plastic wrap and just chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes.
Mix the white and pink doughs together until you get the marbled effect.
Roll, cut out using heart shaped cutter (or any shape you like), place on baking pan and chill again while oven is preheating; this step helps in maintaining the shape of the cookies.
Bake for just 10 to 12 minutes until the cookie sets and still maintains its color.
Cool thoroughly and enjoy!

These cookies came out so crisp and tender, my family was devouring them right off the cooling rack!

I would say, these are at the top of my “easy to bake” cookies, delicious and pretty too!

If you do happen to make these beautiful cookies, then I would love to hear about it! Just leave a comment in the box below (do not forget to rate!) or share your thoughts and experience on my Instagram (@curryandvanilla16/#curryandvanilla16) or Facebook page.

MORE TREATS FOR OUR VALENTINE:

Love cakes? Then you must try these soft and scrumptious HEART SHAPED MINI CHOCOLATE CAKE BITES.
Or you could make these beautiful and healthy Cinnamon and Cardamom Matcha Shortbread Cookies
How about this easy to make Chocolate Walnut Fudge!
Or, you can enjoy these cookies with some cute HEART SHAPED TEA SANDWICHES
Also, one of my favorite; SPICY RAVA/SEMOLINA CUTLETS

Marbled Valentine’s Day Heart-Shaped Cookies

Crispy, tender and flaky bites of pink and white cookie goodness in every bite! With just butter, sugar, flour and a dash of color, this could be the easiest cut out cookies you could make and enjoy!

Course Cookies

Cuisine American

Keyword Eggless, shortbread, Valentine's Day

Ingredients

½ cup softened room temperature unsalted butter
½ cup fine sugar
3 tbsp whipping cream or full fat milk
1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour/maida
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
Few drops pink color

Instructions

In a small mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients; flour, cornstarch and salt. Mix well using a whisk or spoon and set aside.
Add butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy, scraping down the mixture in between.
Stir in the whipping cream and vanilla essence/extract; beat again until incorporated.
Add the dry ingredients and beat on low until just mixed.
Bring the mixture together with your hands to form a soft and smooth dough.
Take out 2/3rd portion of the dough and set aside. Add a few drops of color (more will give a darker color and less a milder pink color) to the remaining 1/3rd and beat until well blended. Remove, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for about 15 minutes if you feel the dough is too soft.
Wrap the plain dough also in plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil and set aside. You could even just grease the pans instead too.
Remove the chilled doughs from the fridge.
Take small portions of the pink dough and knead them into the vanilla white dough, to make a marbled big ball of dough.
Take one portion of this marbled cookie dough and roll in between parchment sheets using a rolling pin. You can use a bit of flour if needed. The sheet of dough should not be too thin or too thick.
Cut out cookies with a heart-shaped cookie cutter. Gently remove, taking care not to break them and place on prepared pans.
Just before baking, preheat oven to 350 degrees F or 180 C.
Return the baking sheet with the rolled cookie dough to fridge for the time taken to preheat the oven or about 10 minutes.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. 10 minutes will make for a tender crumb and 12 minutes will bake up into a crispy cookie. So, bake more if you need a crisp cookie but keep an eye out lest it brown too much! Each oven is different so bake accordingly. (The baking time also depends upon the thickness of the cookie).
Roll out the scraps with the rest of the dough and repeat until no dough is left.
While one sheet of cookies is baking, prepare another baking sheet and chill until ready to bake.
Once baked, let cookies rest on the baking pan for a couple of minutes to firm up; they will be too soft immediately out of the oven.
Cool cookies completely on a wire cooling rack.
Enjoy delicious, scrumptious and flaky Valentine’s Day Heart-Shaped Cookies this Valentine’s Day or bake up these beauties whenever the cookie monster in you or your family craves for one!
These make fantastic edible gifts to share with your loved ones, be it family or friends on any other special occasion too like Christmas, birthdays, festivals, gatherings etc. !
Store leftover cookies in an airtight container.
Happy Baking/Eating!

Recipe Notes

Try not to make the cookies too thin or too thick. Too thin cookies will burn easily and too thick cookies will take a longer time to bake.
If you feel the dough has softened too much, place the baking sheet in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Chilling also helps to maintain the shape of the cookie. This step can be done while preheating the oven.
If you love chocolate, then substitute the color with a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder to make a chocolate marbled cookie.
The same cookie can be made using any shaped cutter you have or like.

Step-wise instructions to make Marbled Valentine's Day Cookies:

In a small mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients; flour, cornstarch and salt. Mix well using a whisk or spoon and set aside.

Add butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl and beat until light and fluffy, scraping down the mixture in between.

Stir in the whipping cream and vanilla essence/extract; beat again until incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients and beat on low until just mixed.

Bring the mixture together with your hands to form a soft and smooth dough.

Take out 2/3^rd portion of the dough and set aside.

Add a few drops of color (more will give a darker color and less a milder pink color) to the remaining 1/3^rd and beat until well blended.

Remove, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for about 15 minutes if you feel the dough is too soft.

Wrap the plain dough also in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and set aside. You could even just grease the pan instead too.

Remove the chilled doughs from the fridge.

Take small portions of the pink dough and knead them into the vanilla white dough, to make a marbled big ball of dough.

Take one portion of this marbled cookie dough and roll in between parchment sheets using a rolling pin. You can use a bit of flour if needed. The sheet of dough should not be too thin or too thick.

Cut out cookies with a heart-shaped cookie cutter.

Gently remove, taking care not to break them and place on prepared pan.

Just before baking, preheat oven to 350 degrees F or 180 C.

Return the baking sheet with the rolled cookie dough to fridge for the time taken to preheat the oven or about 10 minutes.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. 10 minutes will make for a tender crumb and 12 minutes will bake up into a crispy cookie. So, bake more if you need a crisp cookie but keep an eye out lest it brown too much! Each oven is different so bake accordingly. (The baking time also depends upon the thickness of the cookie).

Roll out the scraps with the rest of the dough and repeat until no dough is left.

While one sheet of cookies is baking, prepare another baking sheet and chill until ready to bake.

Once baked, let cookies rest on the baking pan for a couple of minutes to firm up; they will be too soft immediately out of the oven.

Cool cookies completely on a wire cooling rack.

Enjoy delicious, scrumptious and flaky Valentine’s Day Heart-Shaped Cookies this Valentine’s Day or bake up these beauties whenever the cookie monster in you or your family craves for one!

These make fantastic edible gifts to share with your loved ones, be it family or friends on any other special occasion too like Christmas, birthdays, festivals, gatherings etc. !