Valentine’s Day is all about expressing love with gifts, often times something beautiful, tasty, hand made, or sweet. These heart-shaped cookies meet all of those parameters! Cherry Filled Heart Cookies are a Valentine’s Day tradition since I was a little girl.
Cherry Filled Heart Cookies (aka: Give Me All Your Lovin’)
These double-layer cookies with simple cherry pie filling inside have a wow factor while being fairly simple. The dough mixes together just like any cookie recipe. Then it is rolled out and cut into heart shapes. A spoonful of pie filling (with 2-3 cherries) is placed in the center, and then a second heart shape goes on top. Crimp the edges with the tines of a fork dipped into flour so it doesn’t stick.
A couple ways to divide the work between a couple days is to mix the dough, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to cut and bake. Or, go ahead and roll out the dough and cut out the hearts. Place them all on a large cookie sheet and freeze, then store in a sealed container in the freezer until you’re ready to pull them out, assemble with the filling, and then bake.
When you roll out the dough, go ahead and use plenty of flour on your work surface. This dough is somewhat sticky and can use extra flour during the rolling process.
It is not recommended to assemble the cookies and then freeze, as they will become soggy as they thaw.
Filled Heart Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 c margarine or butter
- 1 c sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 t vanilla
- 2 1/2 c flour
- 1/4 t baking soda
- 1/2 t salt
Instructions
- Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla.
- Add dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 2 days.
- Generously flour work surface and roll out dough to 1/16" thickness. Cut with heart-shaped cookie cutters.
- Place one heart on cookie sheet and put a spoonful of cherry pie filling in center. Put another heart-shaped dough piece on top and crimp edges with a fork (dipped in flour if you have any trouble with sticking). Poke one slit into center of each cookie.
- Bake at 400° for 10-12 minutes or until edges begin to brown. My hand written recipe has a reminder to bake them long enough so they don't collapse when picked up. "Crispy cookies good!" is on that extra note.
- These are best served within a day or two. You can freeze cut-out dough and just bake the number you need each day, keeping your opened pie filling in the fridge between baking sessions. Do not freeze filled cookies, because they'll be soggy when thawed.
What is the best Valentine gift you have ever given or received? Tell me about it, and then go make some cookies!
More Valentine Treats:
This recipe was previously posted ten years ago, in February 2011. Updated February 2021.
I have a good memory of being at your mom's for some sort of get together and she served these. Yummy!