Conversation Heart Cookies Recipe

If you're looking for a gift for your special someone, or a treat to bring to a Galentine's Day get-together, this conversation heart cookies recipe from food photographer and recipe developer Autumn LeAnn is just what you're looking for.

Conversation hearts were invented by Necco, also known as the New England Confectionary Company, in the 1860s, and were originally known as "motto hearts." 19th century conversation hearts were larger than the candies are today, and featured sayings such as "Married in white you have chosen right." 

Conversation hearts, while often inspiring nostalgia, are surprisingly divisive. Once Delish writer described them as "talcum powder-tasting treats,," while HuffPost ran a round-up of tweets on the subject with the headline "19 Tweets That Prove Conversation Hearts Are As Divisive As Candy Corn." If you like the idea of a conversation heart, but you're not wild about the candy, don't worry! With this recipe, you can have your cute Valentine's Day treat and eat it, too.

For this recipe, you'll need the classic sugar cookie ingredients: unsalted butter, granulated sugar, flour, salt, and eggs. You'll also need almond extract and corn starch. If you don't have almond extract, or would like to use another flavor, feel free to do so "You can replace the almond extract with any flavor you like," says LeAnn. "Vanilla and lemon are good options if you want to switch it up."

Cornstarch is an ingredient that you might not always see in a sugar cookie recipe. "Cornstarch helps the cookies keep their shape without making them too dry. You could use more flour instead, but this would yield a drier cookie," LeAnn says.

To make the icing and decoration, you'll need some warm water, food coloring of your choice, powdered sugar, an edible ink red food coloring pen, and meringue powder. If you can't find meringue powder, you can substitute 2 pasteurized egg whites. "Make sure they are pasteurized so they'll be safe to consume without additional cooking," says LeAnn.

Cream the butter, granulated sugar, almond extract, and salt together in the bowl of stand mixer until it's light and fluffy. Add the flour, cornstarch, and egg to the mixer. Start out slow, mostly to ensure that flour and cornstarch don't make a mess in your kitchen. Once the flour and cornstarch are combined into the dough, turn up the speed and mix until everything's well-combined.

While it's important to beat your dough, don't overdo it. "Be sure not to overmix the dough," warns LeAnn. "This will develop the gluten too much and your cookies will be tougher."

Sprinkle your work surface with flour and roll the cookie dough out into an even sheet that's roughly ⅛-inch thick. Use just enough flour to ensure that your cookies don't stick to the work surface or the rolling pin — too much flour will lead to dry, tough cookies. Cut out your sugar cookies with a heart-shaped cookie cutter, and place them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Chill the cookies in the freezer for 30 minutes, then bake them for 18 minutes at 325 F. Rotate the baking sheet halfway through. When the cookies are done baking, remove them from the oven and set them aside to allow them to cool completely. 

While the cookies cool, make the frosting. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and warm water, and mix until smooth. Conversation hearts come in different colors, so if you want to make different colors of frosting, you can divide it into different bowls and tint each bowl different colors. "I just used one color for this batch," says LeAnn, "but the fun part of this recipe is you can customize as desired!"

This is a recipe that requires some patience, so please, make sure that the cookies have cooled completely before frosting and decorating. A hot cookie and frosting do not mix!

Dip one side of each cookie into the frosting, and gently wipe off any excess. If any air bubbles have formed, tap on the cookie with a toothpick. Once again, this recipe will require your patience. Let the cookies set until the frosting has fully hardened. "Depending on the humidity in your kitchen, the time can vary," says LeAnn. "Mine took about 6 hours."

Remember, good things are worth waiting for!

Once the frosting has completely set, write whatever you'd like on the cookies using an edible ink food coloring pen. If you can't find a food coloring pen, you can make some extra icing, tint it red, and pipe it onto the cookies using a plastic bag or piping bag.

These conversation heart cookies should keep well in an airtight container for 5 days. Conversation heart candy is cute, but a conversation heart that you made from scratch is cute and impressive.