Valentine Chocolate Sugar Cookies are rich, chocolatey cousins to traditional cut out sugar cookies. Full of fudge flavor and chewy like a brownie, these cookies hold their shape incredibly well. Perfect for chocolate cut outs for Valentine’s Day heart cookies! Decorated as conversation heart cookies they are a delightful Valentine’s for your sweetie this year!
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Who does not love a good sugar cookie at the holidays! Sugar cookie cut-outs are fun and festive treats at Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day or any holiday. Up your game this holiday with fudgy version that is oh-so chocolatey. And really what says Valentine’s more than chocolate!
A perfect recipe for Conversation Heart cookies, cute cut-out cookies decorated as the popular traditional candy for Valentine’s day. Sweetly frosted with message of love and affection.
This recipe is super easy to whip up and also easily doubled. I love making a double batch and decorating half as conversation heart cookies and the other half I frost with buttercream and let my kids sprinkle them up!
Who doesn’t love chocolate and these cookies are so fudgy and chewy like a brownie!!
Looking for more Valentine’s Day recipes? Check out these Italian Lady Kisses cookies, Baci di Dama!
Valentine Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1½ Cups All-Purpose Flour
- ¼ TSP Salt
- ½ TSP Baking Powder
- ½ Cup Butter Room Temperature
- ¾ Cup Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 TSP Vanilla Extract
- ½ Cup Cocoa Powder Unsweetened, Dutch Process
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder, whisk and set aside.
- In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add in eggs and continue to mix, scraping down the sides occasionally.
- Add in vanilla extract and cocoa powder, mixing on low speed until no streaks remain. Scrape down sides to ensure all ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add in flour mixture in small increments until all of the mixture is combined.
- Shape dough into disc and wrap well in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Remove dough from fridge and separate into 4 sections.
- On a prepared surface (I "flour" my counter with powdered sugar), roll out the dough to ¼ inch thickness. Cut out the cookies with a heart shaped cookie cutter.
- Place the cut-outs on the prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Bake in the oven for 9-10 minutes until the edges are set and center is still soft. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Transfer to a rack to cool. Once completely cooled, cookies can be iced.
Royal Icing
Valentine Chocolate Sugar Cookies frosted with royal icing and then decorated with sweet messages, just like the traditional conversation heart candies!
Royal icing need not be intimidating. You will need meringue powder, which you likely do not have in your pantry. My easy to follow recipe is listed below!
I add a little bit of lemon juice to my icing, to cut the sweetness a bit. Frosting should taste like frosting, not powdered sugar! Be cautious to not overmix the icing, as this will result in a dull icing finish. When it is ready, it should drizzle off the beater and smooth out in about 10 seconds.
To make these Valentine Chocolate Sugar Cookies to look like conversation heart candies, color some royal icing pink, light blue, orange, and purple. I also like to leave a batch white. I prefer to use gel food coloring, as the consistency is similar to the royal icing and will not thin it out. The color will also darken a bit as it dries, so keep this in consideration when mixing your colors.
Piping and flooding take some practice to perfect (I am still certainly still learning). The most difficult aspect of royal icing is that it is easy to make a mistake and the smooth surface of the icing makes it easy to spot!
Some bakers change the consistency of their piping and flooding icing. I do not and it does not make it too difficult to get a decent outline. Pipe the outline and allow to dry for about 15-30 minutes. Then flood the outline with more icing. Use a toothpick or an icing tool to spread around and get out any air bubbles.
Conversation Heart Cookies
Food color markers make it so easy to write cute little messages on the cookies. My favorites are:
- XOXO
- Text Me
- Love U
- Hugs & Kisses
- Kiss Me
- LOL
Royal Icing
Ingredients
- 3 TBSP Meringue Powder
- 6-7 TBSP Warm Water
- ¼ TSP Lemon Juice Freshly Squeezed
- 4 Cups Powdered Sugar Sifted
- ½ TSP Vanilla Extract Oil Free
Instructions
- In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, whisk together the 5 TBSP water, lemon juice, and the vanilla extract.
- Add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing on low speed. Continue until all of the sugar is added.
- Allow the icing to mix for about 8-10 minutes on low speed until peaks begin to form.
- Allow the icing to rest for about 10 minutes to allow bubbles to naturally rise to the surface.
- Color as desired with gel food coloring.
Eat well. Live fully. Bake cookies.
