Is your sweetheart, roommate or best friend made of sugar and spice and everything nice? Make them these cookies for Valentine’s Day! This is a little heart day twist on my favorite Snickerdoodle recipe, originally found at sallysbakingaddiction.com.

Ingredients

For the COOKIES:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1 and 1/3 cup white granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour (white, wheat, or a combination)

2 teaspoons cream of tartar (this gives snickerdoodles their signature taste)

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

small heart-shaped cookie cutter or knife

For the TOPPING:

1 bottle red colored sugar, approx. 1/4 cup (this can be found in the baking aisle next to cake decorating sup plies)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper or just grease them well with some Pam. Make the topping by tossing the red colored sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a small bowl. Set aside. Start making the cookies. In a large bowl using a hand-held mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream the softened butter for about 1 minute on medium speed. Get it nice and smooth, then add the sugar on medium speed until fluffy and light in color. Mix in the egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides as needed. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in three different parts. The dough is quite thick and you may have to stir the rest by hand.

(Optional extra step: If you are feeling ambitious or have really tapped into your inner domestic god/goddess, let the dough chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes.)

Take a heaping tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Roll the dough balls into the reserved cinnamon-red sugar topping. Sprinkle extra cinnamon-sugar on top if desired.

To make heart-shaped cookies, slightly flatten the dough ball on the baking sheet. Use the cookie cutter or knife to cut out a heart. You can also use your index finger to indent the top of the cookie into a softer heart shape. Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes. This will make the cookies very puffy, soft, melt-in-your-mouth perfection. Don’t wander off and get distracted by Facebook. It is better to undercook them slightly and let them finish on the cookie sheet than to overcook them because you weren’t paying attention.

Yields 2 dozen cookies. Wrap them up in a box or cellophane for a gift, or store them in some tupperware and they will keep for next week too.

Happy Baking!

This is a modified version of the “Soft and Thick Snickerdoodles” recipe found at sallysbakingaddiction.com. Copyright and recipe owned by sallysbakingaddiction.com.