Conversation Heart Sugar Cookies

Store shelves are crammed with Valentine’s Day candy starting the day after Christmas. It’s on those candy-filled shelves that you’ll find boxes of classic VD candy, like conversation hearts. You know, the small pastel candy hearts with silly things printed on them? They’re classic, cute, and made of sugar. What’s not to love?

Well…

It seems I don’t know anyone who actually likes conversation hearts. So, I decided to make conversation heart-inspired sugar cookies. No one I know can turn down a sugar cookie.

Just insert your favorite cut-out sugar cookie recipe here. I used this recipe.

I planned to give these in individual treat bags, so I used a heart-shaped cutter that was a bit smaller than the bags I had. Before baking the cookies I put the heart-shaped dough cut-outs into the freezer for five minutes. By freezing the dough before baking, the hearts really kept their shape and size.

When the cookies were cooled to room temp, it was time to decorate. I first outlined them all and let the outline dry for about an hour. Ok, it was maybe ten minutes that I let it dry because I’m impatient. It wouldn’t be a terrible thing to let the outlines dry a bit longer than I do, though. Anyway, once dry, I flooded the cookies with royal icing.

Conversation hearts usually come in about six different colors. I decided to keep my sanity and stick with four colors here – pink, lavender, yellow, and green. Super cute, right?

Silly phrases are essential when it comes to conversation hearts. Rather than writing directly on the cookies, I made my life a lot easier and dressed up the presentation by printing sayings and cookie-sized hearts directly onto the glassine bags. I printed the bags in the same four colors as the cookies so everything would match perfectly.

Of course, after a run of the classic “XOXO” and “BE MINE” out of the way, I had to move on to non-typical phrases like “BITE ME” and “GET LOST.”

As a finishing touch, I ran the tops of the bags through a sewing machine with red thread. Now they’re officially sealed and ready to be delivered and devoured!