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marbled heart sugar cookies

marbled heart sugar cookies

chewy, slightly crisp around the edges, almond sugar cookies coated in a marbled glaze. these marbled heart sugar cookies are as fun to eat as they are to make!
5 from 2 votes
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 8 minutes
Chill + Glaze Set Time 8 hours
Total Time 8 hours 28 minutes
Course Celebrations, Dessert
Cuisine American

Equipment

  • standmixer with paddle attachment or hand mixer with beaters
  • rolling pin, recommended
  • parchment paper
  • plastic cling wrap
  • heart shaped cookie or biscuit cutters
  • 2 baking sheets
  • cooling rack
  • several mixing bowls, for the marble glaze
  • toothpick, to pop air bubbles

Ingredients
  

almond sugar cookies

  • 2 c (240g) all purpose flour
  • ¾ c (84g) almond flour sub: ¾ c (90g) all purpose flour
  • ½ tsp (2.5g) baking powder
  • ½ tsp (3g) salt
  • 1 c (227g) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 c (200g) granulated sugar
  • 1 (57g) large egg, room temperature
  • 1 ½ tsp (8ml) vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp (2.5ml) almond extract, optional enhances vanilla flavor
  • flour for dusting cookie/biscuit cutters

marbled glaze

  • 3 c (360g) powdered sugar, sifted
  • 1 tsp (5ml) vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp (5ml) light corn syrup, optional but recommended see notes
  • 3-6 tbsp (45-90ml) milk
  • food coloring

Instructions
 

almond sugar cookies

  • Whisk the all purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder and salt together until well combined. Set aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium high speed until well combined, about 2-3 minutes. Scrape down the sides.
  • Add the egg and vanilla, mixing on low speed until each is incorporated before adding the next, about 20-30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Beat on medium speed for 30 seconds to fully mix and incorporate everything.
  • Add the ½ dry ingredients to the wet, mixing on the lowest speed until JUST combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the remaining ½ of the dry to the wet. Repeat scraping down the bowl.
    If the dough feels too sticky to handle, add in up to 2 tablespoon more flour, 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough feels tacky, but not overly sticky.
  • Drop the dough onto a large piece of parchment paper. Using a bowl/bench scraper or our hands, divide the dough into two medium pieces. Set one piece aside.
    Place a large piece of plastic wrap over the single ball of dough. Roll out the dough to ¼" The shape doesn't matter, more the thickness. Once rolled out, fully wrap the dough in the plastic wrap used to roll out the dough. Place the dough on a half sheet baking sheet or large plate. Repeat for the remaining dough ball.
    Place the rolled out sheets of sugar cookie dough in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.
  • When ready to bake: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Remove one "sheet" of chill dough. Unwrap the dough and place onto a piece of parchment paper. In a small bowl, pour ¼ c flour for dipping the cookie cutter into.
    Dip the cookie or biscuit cutter into the flour, press the cutter into the chilled dough. Repeat until all the dough has been cut into pieces.
    Gently gather the excess dough. Roll back into a ball in plastic wrap. Set aside to be rolled out again for another batch.
    Gently lift the cut pieces of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Space cookies about 2" apart. They shouldn't spread too much while baking. BUT if the dough has gotten warm and the cookies start to lose shape while moving onto the baking sheet, place the cut cookies into the freezer to chill for about 10 minutes.
  • Bake cookies at 350F for 8-12 minutes. The edges will turn a light golden brown. The centers will be light and may not be fully set. Remove the cookies from the oven. Cool on the hot baking sheet on a cooling rack for 3 minutes. Remove cookies to fully cool on the cooling rack for at least 45 minutes or until completely cooled.
  • Repeat rolling, cutting, baking and cooling until all the dough is used.

glazing the cookies

  • In a large, shallow bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, light corn syrup, vanilla extract and 3 tablespoon milk together. Add more milk, 1-2 teaspoon at a time until your desired consistency is reached. The glaze pictured here used about 4-5 tablespoon milk. A good way to check is to run a spoon through the glaze. The glaze should take about 9-10 seconds to fully close the seam and dissipate back into itself.
  • Determine how many colors you want to be in the marble. For these cookies, I used a lighter pink and darker pink, so three colors in total.
    Pour ¼c -⅓c of the uncolored glaze into small bowls. Drop food coloring into the uncolored glaze until you get the colors you want. For the light pink, I dropped one drop of red food coloring. I then added a little more uncolored glaze until I made the light pink color. The dark pink used about 4-5 drops of red food coloring.
    To create the swirl, drizzle each color over the uncolored "base" glaze.
  • Dip each cookie in the glaze. To create a deeper swirl, gently twist the cookie while face down in the glaze. Lift the cookie and allow the excess to drizzle back into the glaze.
    Place the cookie on a cooling rack (with parchment paper lined under the rack) glazed side up to set. Repeat for all the cookies. Add more color glaze to the base glaze as needed.
    You may see air bubbles pop to the surface while the cookies begin to set. After about 2-3 minutes, or in batches of 5-10 cookies, take a toothpick and pop the bubbles. The glaze should still be liquid, so push the glaze to cover the small air bubble hole.
  • Allow cookies 6 hours to fully set.

Notes

light corn syrup: this creates a beautiful shine on the glaze. I tested the glaze with and without. both cookies were used to photograph this recipe. the cookies without the corn syrup were duller once dried. the cookies with the corn syrup had a lovely shine once dried. this is completely optional! 
Keyword easy cut out sugar cookies, marbled sugar cookies, swirl glazed cookies, valentines cookies
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