Striped Heart Sugar Cookies With Spring Flavors

Striped Cookies With Unique Flavors

Please read through the recipe carefully before going to the store to buy ingredients. You may end up deciding to skip the flavor variations or only do some of them. You can create a similar striped cookie look with different doughs and food coloring.

Cook Time

Prep time: 5 hours

Cook time: 12 min

Ready in: 5 hours 12 min

Yields: 32–50 cookies (depends on cookie cutter)

Timing Notes

Important: This recipe is time-consuming. You should do it on a day when you don’t have a lot of other plans.

• It takes about 20–30 minutes to make the initial sugar cookie dough.

• Adding the flavor variations: per dough, it will take 5–10 minutes in a mixer or 15–30 minutes by hand. (I might be a slow baker.)
• The first fridge proof takes a minimum of 30 minutes, though I recommend at least an hour.
• Following the fridge proof, you’ll cut the dough and align strips, which took me about 45 minutes to an hour. Then you rewrap it and put it in the fridge for a second proof, I recommend doing it overnight but you can wait 30 minutes.
• Cutting hearts and putting them on a tray is going to take 5–10 minutes. They bake for 12–14 minutes. The thinner the cookie, the shorter the bake.

Altogether this makes for a lengthy baking process. It’s not the easiest cookie recipe. To get this recipe done with three dough variations, you’re looking at a 4–6 hour investment.

On This Page

• What Do They Taste Like?
• Baking Difficulty
• Ingredients
• Ingredient Notes
• Instructions
• Photo Instructions: Making the Dough
• Photo Instructions: Making the Stripes
• Recipe Notes

What are those wet spots in the pink stripes? I mashed strawberries for that dough. Makes for funny pops of color, but it tastes delicious.

What Do They Taste Like?

I think the cookies taste and smell somewhat like pop tarts. I gave the cookies to a German friend, and she said they tasted like cookies her grandmother made. They might taste more like German baking than the overly sugary and syrupy types of cookies Americans tend to make.

Baking Difficulty

This recipe is very cool but incredibly time-consuming. You can simplify it by making different sugar cookie batches with food coloring rather than flavor variations.

You can also make it more complicated by making doughs of every color of the rainbow. Three different variations took a whole afternoon from me. Plus, cutting the stripes, reshaping the dough, and covering it in plastic was fairly time-consuming.

I give this recipe 3.5 to 4 stars out of 5 on the difficulty scale. 1 star equating to something a child could do, and 5 stars for professionals who can ace tiramisu.

Ingredients

For the sugar cookies:

• 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 eggs
• 8 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the lemon basil variation:

• 4 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons basil
• 1 teabag lemon tea, cut open, pour out ingredients
• 1/2 teaspoon or more yellow food coloring, as needed

For the strawberry mint variation:

• 4–6 tablespoons strawberry puree (see notes)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons mint
• 1/2 teaspoon or more pink food coloring, as needed
• 2–3 large strawberries, mashed
• 1 cup flour (if the dough becomes too wet)

For the earl gray lavender honey variation:

• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 teabags earl gray, cut open, pour out ingredients
• 1 1/2 teaspoons lavender (or lavender tea)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon or more purple food coloring, as needed

How to Make Strawberry Puree

Strawberry extract isn’t exactly the easiest thing to find. This is why I did a strawberry puree instead.

1. In a food processor, mix 4 large strawberries with 1 tablespoon of water and a pinch of sugar. You want the puree to be really thin. I mixed it in my food processor twice.
2. In a saucepan, boil down the puree until it’s the consistency of tomato paste. Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. I also added 1 teaspoon of orange extract.

I used all of my puree in the cookie dough and then added mashed strawberries. My husband likes the strawberry variation of the cookie the best.

Instructions

1. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Use the paddle attachment. Turn off the unit and scrape down the sides if needed.
3. Mix in the vanilla extract to the sugar-butter mixture. Add 1 tablespoon if you’re doing the flavor variations. Add 2 tablespoons if you’re not doing the flavor variations. Add one egg at a time. Make sure each egg is thoroughly mixed before adding another.
4. On a low setting, mix in the dry ingredients in increments. Make sure the ingredients have been fully mixed before adding more. I suggest adding a cup at a time. Turn off the unit and scrape down the bowl if there is residue on the sides.
5. Divide up the cookie dough into three separate bowls. In one bowl mix together the lemon basil ingredients. In the next bowl, mix together the strawberry mint ingredients. In the last bowl, mix together the lavender honey ingredients. If a dough is too wet, add a cup of flour. This will likely be the case for the strawberry dough. If it’s too dry, add a spoonful of butter or mascarpone cheese.
6. Roll out each dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. You may want to roll out each dough on two sheets of plastic. When done rolling out the dough, cover the tops with plastic. Transfer to a baking sheet or cutting board. Leave in the fridge for an hour to firm up (a minimum of 30 minutes).
7. To get the striped effect, use a ruler or measuring tape to mark 1/2 inch strips of dough. Cut these out of your dough. Work on cutting one dough at a time and placing strips on a tray or cutting board covered in plastic. Repeat for the other two doughs.
8. Cover your dough with plastic or parchment paper. Gently roll the dough with a rolling pin. This will seal the dough together. Transfer it back to the fridge and let it rest for 30 minutes to an hour.
9. Preheat your oven to 375°F.
10. Cut the cookies with a heart-shaped cutter or another design that appeals to your heart! Feel free to make shapes out of your remaining dough.
11. Place the uncooked cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12–14 minutes. The thinner the dough, the less time it will need to bake. Let the cookies rest on the baking tray for five minutes then transfer to a wire rack.

Notes: Making the Dough

Making the dough isn’t too hard, especially if you’re only doing the sugar cookie version with no flavor variation. If you’re going for the full recipe, each dough will take a while, and things will get messy. I recommend wearing gloves if you don’t like getting food coloring or dye on your hands.

Photo Instructions: Making the Dough

This recipe calls for a lot of ingredients. I recommend measuring out the ingredients for the base sugar cookies before getting into the recipe.

I do recommend bringing the butter out early to bring it to room temperature. You don’t want to toss bricks of butter into your mixer.

The recipe yields about 32–50 cookies, depending on the cutter(s) you use. It does call for a lot of dry ingredients, so you need a big bowl.

From left to right: the ingredients for the lemon basil, strawberry mint, and earl gray lavender honey cookies.

First, mix together the sugar and butter. Make sure everything is thoroughly mixed before moving to the next step. Scrape down the sides if necessary.

Add one tablespoon of vanilla. If you’re just doing the sugar cookie recipe with no flavor variations, add two tablespoons of vanilla.

Add each egg one a time, making sure each one has been thoroughly mixed before moving to the next one.

In increments, add flour. I would suggest adding about a cup of dry ingredients into the wet ingredients at a time.

When you’re done mixing the dough, transfer it to a work surface. Roll it out and try to get it to mesh together.

Add a touch of butter or mascarpone if your dough is too dry.

Split the dough into three portions. Use a knife to cut the dough into thirds.

Place each dough section into its own bowl.

For each dough, add in the flavor variation you desire. You could do this in a mixer… I did it by hand.

I used food coloring gel. You have to put in some elbow grease to get the coloring and ingredients to spread.

If you don’t keep working on the dough, you may have portions that have flashes of color while the rest looks tannish-beige.

If the dough is too dry and crumbly, as was the case for my earl gray lavender honey portion, add mascarpone to help glue it together.

Keep mashing the dough until you get the right consistency.

Flatten the dough with a rolling pin. It should be about 1/4 inch thick. Pat down areas that have holes or other issues.

To make the strawberry puree, put strawberries into a food processor along with a tablespoon of water and a pinch of sugar.

Boil down the strawberry puree. It should be thin, and it should be fragrant.

Notes: Making the Stripes

Making the stripes will require patience. It takes a while to cut the stripes and also to seal them together. For some people, this might be really tedious. I enjoyed doing this and saw it as a way to escape from my other thoughts and worries.

Putting plastic down where you’ll build your striped dough will be a lifesaver.

Photo Instructions: Making the Stripes

After you’ve let your doughs chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, put them on the counter and unwrap them. Check to make sure they’re firm and not soggy.

The doughs were already rolled before putting them in the fridge, but you’ll do it again a few more times to make sure each dough is congealing.

Try to roll your doughs to be of equal lengths. This will make the process of putting stripes together easier.

Use a ruler to mark 1/2 inch stripes. Cut them and put them on cutting boards or other surfaces. Give enough space to add more stripes. You will need a lot of room to do this!

Make a note of where your shortest and longest stripes are. When you cut the next colored doughs, you’ll want to put stripes together of corresponding lengths.

Set aside a cutting board for extra dough or dough that you have to cut off because it was too long of a stripe. You can use your patchwork dough to make other cookies, whether with the stripe pattern or something else.

Carefully place new stripes next to each other. The stripes should form a pattern. Don’t just align things by height.

You may have to gently move over stripes to get them to the rest of your dough. It’s okay if parts of your dough break off. You can gently squash dough back together.

You’ll probably need about four cutting boards or work surfaces to make the striped doughs. I also recommend putting the new stripes on a plastic-covered surface. It will make life easier.

Don’t eyeball measurements. Keep using a ruler even if it seems tedious.

The dough cuts very easily. After putting the striped doughs together, use a rolling pin to help the stripes to seal together. Roll along with the stripes, not across them.

Wrap up the doughs in plastic. Don’t flip over the dough. Pieces will come off. If you didn’t put plastic underneath, don’t try to now.

After your dough has had plenty of time to chill, it’s cutting time! I have five different heart-shaped cookie cutters… I used all of them for these pictures.

Carefully lift out the hearts from the dough and place them on a baking sheet with parchment paper.

You will have a lot of leftover dough. I recommend putting it with your leftover dough with stripes that couldn’t find a match. You can use that dough to make Franken cookies.

Here is a closeup of a heart-shaped cookie that hasn’t been in the oven.

The dough does smell very fragrant. I think the strongest smell comes from the strawberry dough.

It can be tricky to get the hearts out of the dough. Be patient and don’t rush things.

This is my Franken dough. I hadn’t taken a rolling pin to it yet.

Here are what the cookies look like after going through the oven.

Recipe Notes

These cookies are meant to be creative! You can try different patterns, just make sure to gently roll the dough back together after cutting. I encourage you to try your own variations.

• Firming up the dough: If the dough gets too soft while working with it, put it back in the fridge to firm up. You could also add a pinch of graham crackers to thicken the structure.
• Baking adhesives: I found that after splitting the dough, I had some dough that was very crumbly and had a hard time sticking together. I used mascarpone cheese as an adhesive to bring the dough together. You could also use softened butter.
• Adding sprinkles: If you want to add sprinkles to the cookies, I recommend gently rolling the sprinkles into the dough ahead of all the cutting and reshaping. If you don’t care what colored sprinkles go on what dough, add them for the final roll.
• Freezing dough: If you want to make the dough in advance, just make sure to wrap it really well and stick it in the freezer. Let it thaw before you start cutting or before putting it in the oven. The dough should be okay in the fridge for a few weeks or a month.
• How much vanilla? If you don’t do any cookie dough variations, I recommend doubling the vanilla to two tablespoons. You could also cut the difference with this recipe and halve the ingredients, at which point if you’re not doing variations I’d suggest using one tablespoon of vanilla.

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Originally published: https://delishably.com/desserts/Striped-Heart-Sugar-Cookies-with-Spring-Flavors