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Horizontal photo of a batch of Valentine Shortbread Cookies on a white pedestal serving plate.

Dip, Drip and Flip Shortbread Valentine Cookies

The beauty of these Shortbread Valentine Cookies is not simply skin deep! They look really pretty AND are so sweet, buttery and melt-in-your-mouth delicious! Check out the easy tutorial below!

Course Cookies, Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword Dip, Drip and Flip, Shortbread Valentine Cookies
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 25
Calories 115 kcal
Author Chris Scheuer

Ingredients

For the cookies:

  • 8 ounces very soft salted butter (two sticks)
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup cornstarch

For the icing:

  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 4-5 tablespoons half and half
  • ¼-½ teaspoon vanilla or other flavored extract
  • gel or liquid food color
  • multi-colored nonpareils (little round sprinkles)

Instructions

For the cookies:

  1. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. Place soft butter in a medium-size mixing bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula until nice and smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix together by hand for about 30 seconds until well blended.
  3. Add the flour and cornstarch. Stir until dry ingredients are mostly incorporated. The dough will be a little shaggy.
  4. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and gather into a ball. Knead 5-6 times until fairly smooth and all the small pieces are worked in. If the dough seems sticky, knead it again with a little more flour. Form into a ball again and flatten with your hand to form a flat disk.
  5. Turn the disk to coat both sides with flour. Roll out the dough to an approximate ¼-inch thickness (see Café Tips above in the post). Keep work surface, dough and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour.
  6. With a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies and transfer to them to the prepared pans with a thin, metal spatula. Re-roll scraps as many times as needed to use up the dough.
  7. Place cutouts in the refrigerator, uncovered, for at least one hour or up to 24 hours.
  8. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350˚F. Bake for 10-14 minutes, or until just beginning to turn golden at the edges. Repeat with the second pan of cutouts. Cool on a wire rack before icing.

For the icing:

  1. Combine powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons half and half and flavored extract in a medium-size bowl. Mix until smooth. The glaze should be fairly thick, but pourable. Add a little more half and half if too thick. Add more powdered sugar if it’s too thin. (See picture above in the post.) Taste the glaze and add more extract, if a more intense flavor is desired.

  2. Transfer the glaze to a small shallow bowl (a little larger than your cookies). Add a drop of food color and stir well to combine. Add more food color if needed to achieve the desired color.

  3. Hold onto the edges of a cookie and dip the top surface into the glaze, being sure all of the surface touches the glaze. Pull cookie straight up out of the glaze and allow excess glaze to drip into the bowl for about 15-20 seconds. (You can gently shake the cookie back and forth and up and down to get it to drip a little faster.)
  4. Then quickly flip the cookie to the right side up and give it a gentle jiggle to allow the glaze to flow evenly over the surface. Sprinkle cookies on one side with colored nonpareils.
  5. Repeat with remaining cookies. Place cookies on a cooling rack and allow the glaze to dry for 20-30 minutes.

Recipe Notes

See Café Tips above in post for more detailed instructions and tips for rolling even cookies.

Recipe Notes: Makes 20-25 cookies, depending on the size of your cookie cutters.

I use salted butter. If you use unsalted, add ½ teaspoon of salt to the dough.

Nutrition Facts
Dip, Drip and Flip Shortbread Valentine Cookies
Amount Per Serving
Calories 115 Calories from Fat 72
% Daily Value*
Fat 8g12%
Saturated Fat 5g31%
Cholesterol 20mg7%
Sodium 66mg3%
Potassium 15mg0%
Carbohydrates 10g3%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 2g2%
Protein 1g2%
Vitamin A 235IU5%
Calcium 6mg1%
Iron 1mg6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.