Marbled sugar cookies are the best valentines illusion. They look complicated but they’re so easy to whip up, made with delicious non-spread sugar cookies and fool-proof royal icing, you’ll feel like you’re in elementary art class again!
Here’s the deal, it’s odd to me that all of the heart-shaped desserts are only promoted between January 1st and February 14th. Like hellooo where are all my girlies who love love and want to make a heart shaped cookie on like, July 22nd?? Anyways, below you will find a few helpful tips and tricks to make these gorgeous marbled sugar cookies for the coming holiday (or whenever your heart desires)!
The Cookies
This is my basic non-spread sugar cookie recipe. I’ve been using this recipe for years and it seriously takes minutes to put together! I recommend rolling the cookies pretty thick, since the icing layer will be slightly thick.
Royal icing looks better than it tastes (though my recipe is the best I could make it), so in my experience the thicker the cookie the better the final result with these!
Quick allergen note: These cookies contain almond extract and almond flour. If you need to make them allergen friendly simply replace the almond flour with all purpose flour and eliminate the almond extract!
The Icing
Royal Icing is one of the easiest icings out there! It simply requires a slight learning curve with getting the consistency right. We start with a thicker icing and then thin it out with water as we go. When working with royal icing it is important to make sure that it is covered with plastic wrap or a damp towel when you are not working with it. It reacts to the air and dries very quickly!
My royal icing recipe uses both meringue powder and butter emulsion (or extract). These are slightly more obscure ingredients and can be found on either Amazon or a craft store like Michaels or even JOANN Fabrics. I highly recommend adding the butter emulsion, it is a game changer for the flavor of these cookies!
The Drying Time
The only “down side” to these marbled sugar cookies is that they require at least 1-2 hours of drying time. After you dip them into the marbled royal icing, allow them to sit out for a minimum of an hour to dry completely. Then you’re free to enjoy as you wish!
Chilling the Marbled Sugar Cookies
In order to preserve the heart shape as best as possible, it is important to chill the cookies in the refrigerator after cutting them out. I prefer to roll my cookie dough directly onto my parchment paper, cut out the heart shapes and then remove the excess dough.
I then place that parchment paper onto the tray on which I will later bake the cookies and refrigerate for 30 minutes. The cookies should feel firm to the touch before being placed in the oven.
Can baking be therapeutic?
I often talk about baking being a therapeutic hobby but I’d like to share more about why I feel that way as well as how it can become a relaxing hobby for you!
When I bake, it’s my creative time. I may put on my favorite nostalgic movie or tv show in the background, or a Spotify playlist titled “French café” and leave my troubles behind.
Sometimes I pour myself a glass of wine and light a candle. Then, with the mood set, the mixing of batter, kneading of dough and smoothing of icing is my only care in the world.
When I say baking is therapeutic, sometimes people respond saying “not for me it isn’t!” I completely understand why someone might feel that way. There have been plenty of times where I spend hours on something only for it to fail or something breaks that shouldn’t or I forget to clean as I go and am left with a disastrous kitchen to clean.
So I should in reality, have a caveat to my “baking as therapy” claims…
Baking is therapy when you curate the experience to be relaxing.
How do you curate that relaxing experience for yourself, you ask?
How to make baking therapeutic…
- Prepare your mind–know that it’s okay if the cake doesn’t rise, or the butter wasn’t chilled enough. Shift your mindset from seeing your failures as mistakes to seeing them as opportunities for learning.
- Prepare your space–I cannot and will not bake on top of a messy kitchen. If I were to do this I would be starting from a place of stress! Take an extra 10 minutes to clean any dishes in the sink and wipe down the counters, this small effort will pay you back greatly in brain space and clarity.
- Clean as you go! I’ll tell you the one way to make baking stressful and tiresome, is to not clean as you go! After I use each ingredient that I no longer need, I put it away.
After each major step in the process, I wipe down the counters and put dishes that are no longer needed in the sink. If there is chill time or baking time I don’t sit, I do the cleaning then. Make this shift and you’ll really notice the difference!
By the way, this last tip really helped me when I was on The Great American Baking Show–and the crew that cleaned up behind us made a point to tell me that my workspace was always so clean they didn’t have much to do!
I would reply by saying “it’s how I stay sane in this tent!”
Additional suggestions:
*Maybe try printing off the recipe instead of looking at it on your phone, tablet or laptop and use this time to unplug from technology for a few hours
**Invite friends or family over to share your creation with you. Time spent with loved ones over food is a universally special experience
And that’s how I discovered baking for my mental health. If you try any of these suggestions, let me know how it went for you! I’m really invested in spreading this message to others in hopes that baking will enhance your lives more than it already does!
Happy Baking!
Marbled Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp almond extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup almond flour replace with regular flour if allergic
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
For the Royal Icing
- 2 lbs powdered sugar
- 3 Tbsp meringue powder
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp butter emulsion or extract
- 2/3 cup + 2 Tbsp water
- gel food coloring of choice
Instructions
For the Cookies
- In a medium bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place ½ cup of unsalted butter at room temperature and 1 cup of granulated sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 1-2 minutes).
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the 2 cups of all purpose flour, ½ cup of almond flour, 1 tsp of baking powder and ¼ tsp of salt until combined.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl of butter and sugar mixture and then add 1 egg, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and ¼ tsp of almond extract. Mix until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Do not overmix.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and bring it together by hand until it looks like a homogenous dough.
- Place the dough onto the parchment paper you will use to bake the cookies and roll out to ¼ inch thickness.
- Use your desired cookie cutter to cut out the cookie shapes. Remove the excess dough from around the shapes.
- Combine the excess dough on a lightly floured surface and roll out again to ¼ inch thickness. Cut out the remaining shapes and place on the parchment paper.
- Once all cookies have been cut out and place on the parchment paper, place the parchment paper onto the baking sheet that you will use to bake later on.
- Refrigerate the cookies for just 30 minutes. Cookies should feel firm to the touch before placing in the oven.
- Towards the end of the 30 minutes of chill time, preheat the oven to 350℉ (roughly 180℃)
- Remove the cookies from the refrigerator and bake for 10 minutes.**
- Allow the cookies to cool completely.
For the Royal Icing
- Place 1, 2lb bag of powdered sugar and 3 tbsp of meringue powder into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low until combined.
- Add 1 tbsp of vanilla extract and 2 tsp of butter emulsion or extract and continue to mix on low.
- Slowly pour in the ⅔ cup + 2 tbsp of water a bit at a time while continuing to mix. The mixture will be lumpy at first but will smooth out over time.
- Increase the speed to medium/high once all water has been incorporated and mix for about 30 more seconds.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are combined. Optionally, at this point add some white gel food coloring to reach your desired shade of white.
- Mix one more time then separate out into two small mixing bowls, about ½ cup of royal icing into each bowl. Cover the main white icing with plastic wrap or a damp towel and set aside.
- Color each bowl of icing to your desired shades for marbling and place into piping bags.***
- Drizzle some of each color into the main white icing and swirl the colors together using a toothpick.
- Dip the completely cooled cookies face down into the marbled icing and shake off any excess icing.
- Repeat this process with all of the cookies, adding more colored icing and swirling with a toothpick after every few cookies. Allow all cookies to dry completely (1-2 hours) before enjoying!
[…] Like this design? Want to try it for another holiday? Try my Valentines Marbled Sugar Cookies! […]