There’s no better way to spread love than with a homemade chocolate treat on Valentine’s Day. Whenever I’m baking batches of individual sweets for gifting, I like to keep things simple and use some store-bought components to save time. These adorable linzer heart cookies are made with basic chocolate shortbread and filled with ready-made marshmallow crème—no icing or special filling required! They’re fun to decorate too. You can tint the marshmallow pink or red with a little food coloring and then top it with sprinkles or sparkly sanding sugar. Best of all, the cookies are so cute that you don’t need to spend a fortune on fancy packaging. Wrap them in cellophane bags tied up with ribbon, and add a note for each of your valentines.
How to Make It
Step 1
Beat softened butter and sugar with a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and beat until just blended. Stir together flour, cocoa, and salt in a bowl; gradually add to butter mixture, beating on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.
Step 2
Divide dough in half; pat each half into a 5-inch disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap; chill 2 hours.
Step 3
Preheat oven to 325°F. Unwrap 1 dough disk; place on a lightly floured work surface. Roll disk to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2-inch heart-shaped cutter, cut 12 cookies from dough, rerolling scraps as needed. Using a 1-inch heart-shaped cutter, cut holes in centers of 6 of the cookies (leaving remaining 6 cookies whole).
Step 4
Arrange the 6 whole cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Arrange the 6 cut-out cookies on a separate baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake in preheated oven until bottoms are slightly browned, 9 to 11 minutes (cut-out cookies will bake a little quicker). Cool on baking sheets 2 minutes; transfer to wire racks to cool completely, 20 minutes. (You can bake the unused centers from the cut-out hearts 6 to 8 minutes.)
Step 5
Meanwhile, repeat Steps 3 and 4 using remaining dough disk.
Step 6
Divide marshmallow crème evenly between 2 small bowls. Tint crème in 1 bowl with 2 drops of pink food coloring, and stir to incorporate. Leave crème in second bowl untinted. Spread pink crème evenly among the centers of 6 of the whole cookies; spread untinted crème over remaining 6 whole cookies. Place crème-covered cookies on a baking sheet; decorate with sprinkles or sanding sugar as desired. Top crème-covered cookies with cut-out cookies to make 12 cookie sandwiches.
