Valentine Lofthouse Cookies

Remember those Lofthouse Sugar Cookies I blogged about before? No? Well, here they are again in heart form. I am really really not a lover of all things pink with hearts. I tried to make the icing red, but it didn’t happen. I guess I needed to add the whole jar of dye to get that color. What I ended up with was hot pink! ugh!! This was my first time working with dye, so oh well…

Anyway, as everyone knows, the holiday of love is coming up. I might not have a Valentine this year, and I’m totally okay with that. Relationships bring on too much drama for my needs haha. I enjoy being single, especially while being a graduate student.
So, in honor of this holiday and for the people out there who actually like hearts and the color pink, you should try out this recipe. This is a soft, cakey, delicious cookie. These cookies are so good that I have to control myself from not eating the whole batch.
I made these cookies for my students (and made a few extra for me hehe). I’m trying my best to keep my hand out of their cookie jar. Because if I don’t control myself, only one student will end up with a cookie tomorrow LOL! They take some time to make, so make the dough the day before Valentine’s. I posted a few process photos below so that you can see how thick the dough is. You’ll need a bit of flour to handle the sticky dough, but it’s worth all the trouble.
Enjoy!

Lofthouse Cookies
adapted from Recipezaar
For 4-inch cookies, you will end up with two dozen cookies. So, if you make 2 1/2 – 3-inch cookies, you should end up with about 3-4 dozen cookies.

1 cup butter
2 cups sugar (in my halved version, I added 2 Tbsp (1/4 cup for full version) EXTRA of sugar to make the cake part a tad sweeter)
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups sour cream
5-6 cups AP flour, until desired consistency for rolling (in my halved version, I used 2 1/2 cups in the dough and then added about half a cup more of flour while rolling out the dough. I needed more than a cup for the full version.)

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. Mix in dry ingredients.

Cover and refrigerate overnight (or 6-8 hours).


Preheat oven to 425ºF.
Roll out dough to a 1/4 to 3/8 inch thickness using a generous amount of flour (I used a combination of flour and powdered sugar for a non-stick surface and flavor). Cut out shapes, and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 minutes.

Cool on wire rack.
Frost (recipe below), and decorate as desired.

Lofthouse Cookie Frosting
adapted from Recipezaar
Yields enough for 2 dozen cookies, so double the recipe, if you need more.

3 1/2 – 4 cups confectioners’ sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
1/2 cup shortening
5-8 Tbsp (or more) evaporated milk (or regular milk), until you reach the desired consistency
1 tsp vanilla extract
red food coloring (optional)

In a large bowl, cream together the confectioners’ sugar and shortening until smooth. Gradually mix in the evaporated milk and vanilla with an electric mixer until smooth and stiff, about 5 minutes. Color with food coloring, if desired.

Copyright – Memoria James – http://www.mangiodasola.com

Memoria is a polyglot xenophile from Texas who currently lives in Germany. She teaches English by day and Spanish by night and works on her food, language, and travel blog and Local Language eCourse in between. She speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, some German, and a little French. She loves to travel and learn the local language for every country she visits and hopes that she can pass this linguistic desire to others.

Author: Memoria James

Memoria is a polyglot xenophile from Texas who currently lives in Germany. She teaches English by day and Spanish by night and works on her food, language, and travel blog and Local Language eCourse in between. She speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, some German, and a little French. She loves to travel and learn the local language for every country she visits and hopes that she can pass this linguistic desire to others.

0 thoughts on “Valentine Lofthouse Cookies”

  1. Ah, I have to say that these are the cutest, prettiest, filled with love cookies I have ever seen! I am giving my students candy today, but I wish I could give them something homemade; maybe next year?

    Your pictures are so "sweet," just like you!
    Happy Valentine's Day to my favorite Valentine :o)

  2. I have never succeeded in making red icing! I always end up with hot pink too. That's totally passable on Valentine's day… my hot pink Christmas cookies were a different story. 😉 Hot pink or no, your cookies look great!

  3. what kind of food colouring did you use liquid, powder or gel? I am using a gel food cour these days that seems to be giving me a nicer colour than the liquid colour I used before. Hey – you don't need someone special in your life to celebrate valentines Day – you are special. Make it a special Day for you. When I was single I used to go all out and spoil myself.

  4. I'm not much into hearts and pink either. And now that I think about it chocolate flowers! It may have something to do with growing up in a house full of boys. With that said I certainly wouldn't pass up any pink or heart shaped cookie from you!
    ~ingrid

  5. I'm going to have to agree with the others and say if you want a more intense color without using all the extra dye, that gel colors work wonderfully. BUT don't use the Wilton gel colors because they produce more of a pastel coloring. Americolor is the way to go and they sell mini bottles for about $1.75.

    BTW, I happen to like pink or red and hearts so I think these are pretty. What can I say, I'm a little hokey 🙂

  6. The cookies look great, perfect for Valentines Day. You're so nice for making treats for your students. I never did that. hah. Oh, btw, I don't live in graduate housing but it's almost like that since my neighborhood is completely filled with students!

  7. How beautiful! I so love your reference to the "holiday of love". It has so much nicer a connotation than Valentine's Day :-). Have a great weekend. Blessings…Mary

  8. for someone who doesnt like pink this is very evry very pretty . at least u took the trouble to make soemthing valentinine..i didnt…^^

  9. Lofthouse cookies are my favorite in the entire world-they're the softest, melt in your mouth sugar cookies out there! My roommates always laugh at me whenever I can find them in the grocery store. I'm so excited to try this recipe, thanks for posting 🙂

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