conversation heart cookies

Say what you mean, and mean what you say…

That attitude is perfect when making these

Conversation Heart Shortbread Cookies!

Have you ever made shortbread?

It’s soooo easy, and they have a

nice sweet, salty quality to them.

They’re really good with tea and coffee

or a nice glass of cold milk.

What makes this recipe especially fun

are the endless options of phrases

that can be pressed into the cookies…

I chose words like

ciao, Hugs, Amore, Be Mine, BFF, Kiss and 

Wink Wink.

Valentine Shortbread Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾  teaspoon salt

8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

½  cup confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 small packet red food dye

1. Wisk together flour and salt. In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add sugar, and continue to beat until pale and fluffy, occasionally scraping down the sides of bowl, about 2 minutes more. Beat in vanilla and natural red food dye. Add flour mixture, and mix on low speed, scraping sides if necessary, until flour is just incorporated and dough sticks together when squeezed with fingers.

2. Turn out dough, forming into 2 disks; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Roll out 1 disk to a ¼ inch thickness. Cut out shapes using heart cookie cutter, and transfer to prepared baking sheets. Reroll scraps. Repeat with remaining disk. Indent cookies with desired stamps. Refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes. Bake until firm and golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Makes about 2 dozen small cookies.

Adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe.

Natural food dyes are the perfect option for making any colored cookie, cake or frosting. I found this brand at my local Mother’s Market (also available on Amazon).

I love that they use vegetable colors only.

Beets, carrots, turmeric and cabbage make the most beautiful colors. Keep in mind that they won’t be as bright as the artificial colors, but I really like their soft tones. (Here's another option by McCormick).

Here are the cookie cutters I used.

They come in four great sizes that aren’t too big,

and I love the option of having fluted edges too!

To get the perfect typeset for the words I pressed into the cookies, I used this set of alphabet & number stamps.

When using these, you’ll need to separate each letter before you start baking. I used scissors to trim them all, so they fit into the purple holder nice and straight. 

These cookies were really a lot of fun to make! 

How would you personalize your conversation heart cookies?

ciao! fabiana