Valentine Day Heart Sugar Cookie

Directions

1. Start by adding the softened butter and sugar and whisk well until you have a very smooth mixture.

2. Then add the vanilla, followed by the 3 egg yolks and a pinch of salt, and whisk again until everything is well incorporated.
3. Finally, add the sifted unleavened flour and mix well with a wooden spoon until you get a slightly crumbly mixture, remove and place on a wooden board or marble stone, knead a little (note that all butter cookies should be handled as little as possible as not to melt the butter) and create a ball of dough.
4. Now divide the ball into 5 parts, separate 3 pieces and wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge the other two parts add a teaspoon of red food coloring to each and knead until they are very red and shiny, wrap each in cling film and refrigerate as well.
5. Now each step you do you’ll need to put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to stop the butter from melting.
6. Remove the pieces one by one and roll them out with a rolling pin, the best way is to use silicone film or cover a board with cling film, place the dough on top and then cover the dough with more cling film so that the dough doesn’t stick together, create a rectangle, use a knife to cut out parts and help create a rectangle, you don’t have to be super exact, but try to make sure that the thickness and size is similar for all the pieces, also note that the combination of all the strips on top of each other has to be close in height to the diameter of the heart shape you’re using, repeat until you’ve stretched them all and put them back in the fridge.

7. After 30 minutes, whisk a little egg white with a little water (1 teaspoon), then line a board with cling film again and take out a strip of dough, brush a little of the egg white mixture on it, then take out another strip of red-colored dough and put it on top, repeat until you have a block of dough, finally roll it lightly over the block just to make sure all the strips stick together, wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge again.
8. Prepare a freezer-safe tray with non-stick paper to spread the cookies out on, take the dough out of the fridge, now you’re going to cut slices the thickness you want the cookies to be more or less, if the slices are still too small for you to use your heart shape (as happened to me, I measured wrong hehehe), cut a slightly thicker slice, put cling film over the slice and use the kitchen roll to stretch the slice a little, in my case to cut 2 hearts for each slice, remove the heart to the tray with non-stick paper, repeat until you have no more slices, with the leftovers you can make dough balls or small cookies : ) Put everything back in the fridge.
9. Now preheat the oven to 170ºC while the hearts cool in the fridge, this ensures that when you cook them later they’ll be perfect. If they’re at room temperature they’ll melt before cooking and you’ll be left with a giant cookie instead of beautiful hearts!

10. When the oven is preheated and you’ve spent at least 30 minutes in the fridge, take out the hearts and place them on the baking tray (in my case it’s simple, I just pulled the non-stick paper over the baking tray) and bake for 10 to 11 minutes, keep an eye on the oven, you don’t want the cookies to be toasted, you want them cooked but white, so as soon as 8 minutes have passed keep an eye on them, if the tip of one of the smaller hearts starts to change color then take everything out of the oven and they’re ready!
11. When you take them out of the oven, let them rest for a while, as while they’re hot they’re very soft, when they cool down they’ll be super crispy and ready to eat!