Sugar cookies are often the top pick for a holiday cookie. You can always find those Pillsbury slice and bake ones with holiday designs. People love to bake cut out sugar cookies at Christmas. It’s understandable why, they are easily customizable, and easy to bake. I decided to make these Valentines sugar cookies after my Cranberry Orange Sugar Cookies were so well received over the holidays.
This recipe is based off the orange cranberry version, just more pared down. It’s also a no chill recipe so you can make and have cookies in about 30 minutes! You can definitely chill them and it will only improve the flavor, but because these are a slightly thicker cookie, baking them immediately doesn’t cause them to spread too much.
The end result is a buttery and sweet cookie with a lightly crisp edge but soft and chewy center. Honestly, sometimes simple cookies are the best and these would make an excellent treat to share with friends or neighbors for valentine’s or galentine’s day. If you aren’t a sprinkle person, these can be easily omitted. Let’s get baking!
Valentines Sugar Cookies Key Ingredients
- Butter – Butter, like in shortbread or butter cookies is one of the stars of the show in a sugar cookie (other than sugar). You don’t need fancy butter, just regular unsalted will do the trick. Make sure the butter is room temperature but not too soft. This is how we get away with not chilling the dough.
- Sprinkles – Any valentines sprinkles you prefer but I would probably go with one that is mainly jimmies as they work well in the dough and aren’t too hard. I used one from Sprinkle Pop like this one.
- Vanilla – I used just vanilla extract but you could easily add some almond or lemon extract as well for a slightly different flavor.
Ingredients
- 170 g Unsalted butter 12 tbsp, room temperature
- 200 g Granulated sugar 1 cup
- 50 g Dark brown sugar ¼ cup
- 1 large Egg + 1 yolk room temperature
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 270 g AP Flour 2¼ cup
- ¾ tsp Sea salt
- ½ tsp Baking powder
- ¼ tsp Baking soda
- ½-¾ cup Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, measure out your flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk together and set aside.
- In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer with paddle attached, cream together your butter and sugars on medium for 2-4 minutes until smooth.
- Add in your egg, egg yolk and vanilla, mix on medium until incorporated well. Make sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl if using a stand mixer.
- Add your dry ingredients and mix on low until just combined. This will most likely take 30 seconds or less.
- Add in your sprinkles, and stir into the dough using a rubber spatula.
- Using a 2 tbsp cookie scoop, scoop dough onto baking sheet, leaving a few inches on each side.
- Bake for 10 minutes on the center rack of your oven. The edges will be lightly golden but cookies will still be soft in the center. Carefully transfer them to a wire cooling rack after they come out of the oven.
- Store cookies in an airtight container for 3-5 days. Enjoy!
