Name: Valentine's Day Slice-and-Bake Heart Cookies
Cook time: P0Y0M0DT0H40M0.000S
Total time: P0Y0M0DT2H0M0.000S
Yield: 24 to 28 cookies
Ingredients: 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter; 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar; 1/4 cup light brown sugar; 1 large egg; 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract; 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/4 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt; Pink food dye; Red food dye 1/2 cup sprinkles, preferably heart-shaped ones

Directions

Special equipment:

a small heart-shaped cookie cutter about 1 inch high

Beat the butter, confectioners’ sugar and brown sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. Mix the flour mixture into the butter-and-sugar mixture until it forms a dough.
Knead the dough into a ball. Remove a third of the dough and place it in a small bowl. To the larger piece of dough, add enough pink food dye to color the dough deeply, mixing or kneading until the color has fully saturated the dough. Cover the pink dough in plastic and chill until ready to roll out.
Add red food dye to the smaller piece of dough and mix or knead until the color is fully saturated. On a floured surface, roll out the red dough to a thickness of about 1/2 inch and cut out small heart shapes with a heart-shaped cutter about 1 inch high. Repeat until all the red dough is used. Stack the hearts on top of each other to form two equal stacks. Carefully transfer them to a parchment-lined baking sheet, laying them down in a row, and freeze for 30 minutes.
Split the pink dough in half. Roll each half out on a floured surface to match the length of the rows of hearts, making it about 5 to 6 inches wide. Wrap the pink dough around the row of hearts, taking care to press the dough very gently into any open spaces. Cover each log with plastic wrap, roll again and chill for at least 1 hour and up to overnight (see Cook’s Note).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place the sprinkles on a plate or baking sheet. Unwrap the chilled cookie dough and roll it in the sprinkles until fully covered.
Slice the cookies between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are puffed and slightly browned on the edges, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets until just firm, 2 to 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Cook’s Note

If the dough becomes too soft while cutting out the red hearts, transfer it to a parchment-lined baking sheet and place in the freezer for 20 minutes. For seamless cookies with no gaps between the heart center and the pink outer circle it’s best to chill the dough overnight.