Patchwork Valentine Heart Shaped Cookies

Beautiful patchwork Valentine heart shaped sugar cookies in three colors.

Mixer

Cookie sheet

Heart shaped cookie cutter

Small round cookie cutter

Cutting mat

Sugar Cookie Dough

Ingredients-

• 1 ½ cups butter softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon almond extract optional
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Directions-

• Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl beat butter with a mixer on medium to high 30 seconds.
• Add granulated sugar and baking powder,
• Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.
• Mix the egg, vanilla, and almond extract if using until all combined.
• Beat in salt and as much of the flour as you can with the mixer.
• Stir in any remaining flour. 
• On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to 1/8- to 1/4-inch thickness. Using 2- to 3-inch cookie cutters, cut dough into desired shapes. (see below for patchwork techniques)
• (Dip cutters in flour to prevent sticking.)
• Place cutouts 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until edges are firm but not brown. Remove; cool on wire rack. 

The fun thing about making these heart shaped Valentine cookies is the technique that I used.

The technique of swapping one dough into the holes of another is actually pretty simple.

After you make the dough, dye the dough at least two different colors. I actually used 3 which included the plain dough color.

Using red gel food coloring I was able to get a deep red, and a pink color.

Second, roll out each color of dough separately. Use mini cookie cutters to cut out shapes from each color of dough.

I used a circle cutter and a mini arrow cutter.

Replace the empty spots with the opposite color circles and arrows to create a patchwork slab of dough.

Using a large heart shaped cutter cut out lots of hearts.

Place on cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

To get the striped looking heart shaped cookies you simply cut each of the colored rolled dough into strips. Vary the sizes of the widths of the strips for a fun look.

Press the strips together to create one slab of dough.

Use a rolling pin to gently roll the seams together before cutting out large heart shaped cookies.

Play around with your striped dough to get some fun effects. Cut out other shapes to attach to the top of the striped heart cookie.

To get the beautiful gold sparkly finish on some of your cookies, use gold luster dust.

You simply add 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp of a clear extract like almond or clear vanilla and mix it together with some of gold luster dust. You don't need a lot.

Use a small clean paint brush and brush it over baked cookies for a really pretty sparkly look.

Get your kids involved in making these cookies and let their creativity shine.