Valentine Shortbread Cookie Stacks

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. I’m baking up stacks of sweet shortbread cookies, flavored with ‘chocolate dust.’ So read on, and enjoy my Valentine cookie recipe!

Get ready for easy Valentine Shortbread Cookie Stacks! Valentine shortbread cookies have long been a favorite of mine for gifting. It’s because I can bake up as many or as few sets that I need. One batch of this dough will yield approximately 25 cookies with the cutters I am using, so I manage five sets which I then stack and tie off with ribbon.

I have a keen set of cookie cutters, one harmoniously nested inside of the next. The set is complete with 5 cutters. The dough I am using is for a basic shortbread recipe. I use it for Easter shortbread cookies every year. There’s no shortage of easy Valentine cookie recipes, but mine are just a tad unique. For Valentine’s Day, I add a little something extra! I work ‘chocolate dust’ into the dough before chilling these rolled shortbread cookies. Ready to bake up this easy shortbread cookie recipe?

Valentine’s Day is the sweetest ‘lil holiday if there ever was. Gifts needn’t be big to make the statement that you care about somebody. What better than sweetly decorated pink shortbread cookies? How about heart shaped shortbread cookies sprinkled with colorful sugar sand? Stack ’em and tie them off with a pretty bow.

Want to make a sweet impression? In less time than it takes to bake up a chocolate cake, you can bake and be cooling these cute shortbread heart biscuits. Really, nothing says ‘I care’ more than something homemade or home baked!

These need not be hearts, although not much else gets the message across quite like them. I have done circle cutouts decorated with the colors of Valentine’s, as well as a classic shortbread wedge. My easy delicious shortbread cookies have a little something extra mixed into the love. Chocolate dust!

What the heck is chocolate dust?

Chocolate dust isn’t special. It’s merely chocolate chips, pulverized in your food processor. The dust speckles the cookies, while the cookies maintain their traditional shortbread appearance. And rather than taking on a chocolate flavor, they add just a pinch of chocolate essence.

You could use mini chocolate chips if you were inclined to offer instantly recognizable shortbread Valentine cookies. But with chocolate dust dotting the dough and lending uniqueness to these cookies, I find this recipe intriguing. Kind of like offering heart shaped Linzer cookies, just without the added jam.

Chocolate and Valentine’s Day seem to be buddies. They’ve been working the romance crowds as a duo for decades. Every magazine I open is featuring recipes for Valentine cookies which incorporate chocolate in some way or another. I don’t mind it at all because I love, love, LOVE chocolate. But I do not want chocolate Valentine cookies. If I was going for a chocolate dough, it’d taste entirely different than these little guys.

In this recipe, I want to maintain a shortbread cookie and incorporate chocolate just a wee bit. Be different. Stand out. And besides, who wouldn’t be intrigued at the idea of tasting chocolate dust?

These Valentine Shortbread Cookie Stacks With Chocolate Dust are PERFECT for a teacher’s gift or present to YOUR sweet Valentine!

My easy Valentine’s Day cookies may be rolled, cut, and stacked the way I show them above, or cut all the same size and mass distributed. They’re PERFECT as a classroom treat, an office function, or passed out at a book club meeting. The best part is that these cutesy cookies for Valentine’s won’t take you all day. They do require an hour to chill in between assembling the dough and cutting and baking.

I use that time to cut lengths of chiffon ribbon I will tie my stacks with. I also gather my sugar sand, sprinkles, candied cherries, and a pie plate to catch the runaways! These heart-shaped biscuits are sure to put a smile on the faces of your Valentine recipients, so I do hope you’ll give them a go!

How do you make Valentine cookies?

Grab your butter and your flour and have a baking sheet at the ready. We’re baking up this fun Valentine cookies recipe today, and in only minutes. The ingredient list is minimal, adding to the simplicity of assembling shortbread. It’s one of the easiest methods to follow honestly, and the recipe goes back centuries.

Shortbread was introduced to the court of Mary Stuart. You probably know her best as Mary, Queen of Scots. This 16th century of shortbread was baked, cut into triangular wedges, and flavored with caraway seeds, so quite a bit different than today.

What are the main ingredients in shortbread dough?

I begin with 1 cup of unsalted butter that I’ve left on the counter to soften for several hours. I then combine a mere 1/2 cup of either light or dark brown sugar to that soft butter, creaming until light colored and fluffy. The whole lot gets flour and salt and is thoroughly mixed. Then comes the chocolate dust.

I measure 1/4 cup of my fave chocolate morsels and smash them to bitty bits in my processor. Pulse intermittently to gauge the breakdown. By hand, I run the dust into the dough making sure not to handle too much as to melt the chocolate with the heat from my hands. It’s not difficult and goes very fast.

What’s the easiest way to roll out the dough?

A gallon size plastic bag is your best friend for this next step. Pack the bag with all of the dough. Just toss it all in there. A rolling pin will smooth things out for the hour long chill enabling us to bust out our cookie cutters and have at it. Warm dough will not work well, so do be sure to chill. The shapes are up to you. As I mentioned earlier, this is also a sweet Easter cookie recipe if you’ve got egg or chick or bunny shaped cutters.

All images and text ©Jenny DeRemer for Not Entirely Average, LLC

Valentine Shortbread Cookie Stacks

Jenny from Not Entirely Average

These Valentine Shortbread Cookie Stacks begin with a shortbread cookie recipe that is positively PERFECT to bake for YOUR sweet Valentine!

No ratings yet

Servings: 25 cookies

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Rate Recipe

Prep Time 1 hr 10 mins

Cook Time 40 mins

Total Time 1 hr 30 mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 25 cookies

Calories

Equipment

• heart-shaped cookie cutter(s)
• baking sheet with wire cooling rack

Ingredients

 

Ingredients for Valentine Shortbread Cookie Stacks

• 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar may be light or dark
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup chocolate morsels pulverized in a food processor into very small bits

Instructions

 

The Method

• Arrange an oven rack to the middle position. Preheat to 300°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment and set aside.
• Using an electric handheld mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light colored and very fluffy.  Add flour and salt and continue to mix on the lowest speed until the ingredients are incorporated.  Dough will very crumbly. 
• Add the chocolate dust and using your hands, gently work into the dough until speckled throughout. 
• Load the dough into a gallon-sized plastic bag. Keeping the zip top of the bag open, carefully rollout on a flat surface. Be sure to roll the dough to every edge and into every corner of the bag.  Then roll to an even thickness overall. Seal top of bag and refrigerate for at least one hour.
• Remove the dough bag from the refrigerator and use scissors to cut the bag off the dough. Using your favorite cookie cutter(s), cut 25 cookies from dough.  Place 10 to 14 cookies on each sheet depending on size and bake each sheet for 20 minutes. Cookies will just be starting to turn light brown.  Cool completely on a wire cooling rack to avoid crumbling when handling.

Keyword cookie, dessert, easy, kid friendly, shortbread, valentines day dessert

Tried this recipe?Let me know how it was!