Valentine’s season is one of my favorite times of year to make decorated cookies (second only to Christmas). One thing I like about Valentine’s cookies is that you can get away with just a simple shape (a heart) and three colors (red, white, and pink) and still make some really special cookies.
For Valentine’s cookies I often set aside my “regular” sugar cookie recipe and make some delicious Chocolate rolled cookies. In fact, this recipe is so delicious I should really pull it out more often! This recipe is a slight variation of a recipe a friend gave me several years ago.
Chocolate Rolled Cookies
1 cup butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tablespoons chocolate liqueur or extra strong coffee (this can be made with about 1 teaspoon of instant espresso dissolved into 2 Tablespoons warm water)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions:
1.) Sift together (or gently stir with a whisk) the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2..) With an electric mixer cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until fully incorporated and fluffy.
2.) Beat in egg, coffee or liqueur, and vanilla.
3.) Add in flour/cocoa mixture about 1 cup at a time. Blend until fully incorporated. (If you are using a hand mixer you may need to add the last cup of flour by hand).
4.) Divide dough into two or three large balls, place in a plastic bag and chill in the refrigerator 1-2 hours (if you’re in a hurry, you can chill the dough for about 20 minutes in the freezer).
5.) Once chilled, work with one ball of dough at a time, and roll onto a lightly floured surface. I find it works best to place a sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough, and then roll on top of the parchment. This prevents the dough from sticking to your rolling pin, and you also don’t need to add as much extra flour (as you would without the parchment).
6.) Cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters and place on a baking sheet.
7.) Place the baking sheet (with cookies on it) in the freezer about 5 minutes (this helps the dough keep it’s shape when baked).
8.) Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes (depending on size) in a 350*F oven.
9.) Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet a few minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
10.) Decorate as desired.
Recipe Source- Glorious Treats
HERE is my royal icing recipe as well as lots of decorating tips to get you started.
HERE is a decorating tutorial from Karen’s Cookies that shows several of the same decorating techniques I used for these Valentine’s cookies.
Happy Baking!
How to Make Chocolate Rolled Cookies
Chocolate Rolled Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons chocolate liqueur or extra strong coffee this can be made with about 1 teaspoon of instant espresso dissolved into 2 Tablespoons warm water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Sift together (or gently stir with a whisk) the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until fully incorporated and fluffy.
- Beat in egg, coffee or liqueur, and vanilla.
- 3Add in flour/cocoa mixture about 1 cup at a time. Blend until fully incorporated. (If you are using a hand mixer you may need to add the last cup of flour by hand).
- Divide dough into two or three large balls, place in a plastic bag and chill in the refrigerator 1-2 hours (if you’re in a hurry, you can chill the dough for about 20 minutes in the freezer).
- Once chilled, work with one ball of dough at a time, and roll onto a lightly floured surface. I find it works best to place a sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough, and then roll on top of the parchment. This prevents the dough from sticking to your rolling pin, and you also don’t need to add as much extra flour (as you would without the parchment).
- Cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters and place on a baking sheet.
- Place the baking sheet (with cookies on it) in the freezer about 5 minutes (this helps the dough keep it’s shape when baked).
- Bake cookies for 7-10 minutes (depending on size) in a 350*F oven.
- Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet a few minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack.
- Decorate as desired.
When you measure your dry ingredients, flour, sugar & cocoa powder, do you spoon these ingredients into measuring cup and level off or scoop directly out of flor bag, sugar bag & cocoa canister. I always use metric weights for accuracy so not sure how you “measure” your ingredients. Please reply, these look so good, I want to make them for Valentine gifts.
I found this recipe on your web years ago. I use it for every holiday! They are soo good, thank you!!
How do you get your icing so red?
I use Americolor brand gel coloring in “Super Red”.
I’m doing this next month and I’m wondering how many cookies this will make?
Fantastic cookies! I made them without the baking soda, and they were a little bitter. I wanted to leave out the leavening, so they would not puff out. Is the baking soda in the recipe for leavening, or to balance the acidity of the chocolate?
With the recipe as is (with baking soda), the cookies do not puff up much and keep their shape beautifully! Make sure the dough is nice and cold before you bake the cookies.
I can’t imagine what would make the cookies bitter at all, they should be quite sweet (although I suppose any chocolate flavor could be described as bitter?). The baking soda will not make any difference in sweetness or bitterness. The flavor of these cookies is (and should be) quite similar to a brownie.
I just made this recipe I used coffee and made bear shapes. Such rich flavor! Love them. I can’t fit my sheets in my freezer but they still held shape really well. Thank you
I just made these today, the dough tastes lovely and your cookies look gorgeous. But for some reason I found the dough very dry. I followed the recipe exactly, is there something I might of done? Or can do?
Just made these with Christmas cutouts! Very good!
for the cocoa powder is Hershey’s Cocoa, Natural Unsweetened good for this or should it be sweetened?
Yes, this is unsweetened cocoa. My favorite brands are Ghirardelli or Valrhona, but Hershey’s will work as well.
They look so yummy! I want to try this recipe so badly, by any chance do you have this recipe in grams? I’m having trouble with calculating cups.
Thanks for the comment. I’m sorry I am only familiar with American measurements, but feel free to use google to find a good conversion chart and you can convert the measurements.