Chocolate Heart Thumbprint Cookies
This easy recipe for Chocolate Heart Thumbprint Cookies is a festive and delicious way to decorate Valentine's Day cookies with organic ingredients! Buttery and crisp shortbread cookies are filled with my favorite organic chocolate hearts for a cookie everyone will love!
If you're looking for more Valentine's Day cookies, be sure to check out some of my other favorites like Valentine’s Day Peanut Butter Cookie Skillet, Eggless Valentine's Peanut Butter Blossoms, Eggless Chocolate Heart Cake, or Sourdough Red Velvet Cookies Without Food Coloring.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Chocolate Heart Thumbprint Cookies
- Ready In: 34 minutes
- Makes: 24 cookies
- Main Ingredients: salted butter, cane sugar, all purpose flour, chocolate hearts
- Flavor Profile: buttery sweet cookies with rich chocolate
- Dietary Info: no seed oils, gluten free swap available
- Difficulty: Easy!
- Why You’ll Love It: organic chocolate heart cookies
Summarize & Save This Content On
Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Easy: These organic cookies are incredibly easy to make. It only takes about 15 minutes to make them!
- Festive and Simple: I love how these organic cookies are festive, but simple! No coloring frosting, getting out piping bags, or anything that requires a lot of work! Just simple Valentine's Day cookies with minimal effort.
- Make Ahead: Because these are a shortbread cookie base, they are a great make ahead cookie as you can leave them out overnight!
- Organic Cookies: While you can buy Valentine's Day cookies at the grocery store bakery, those will have preservatives, artificial colors, and more. Making these organic cookies at home will give you a better tasting cookie you'll feel good about indulging in!
These shortbread cookies with chocolate heart centers are perfect for Valentine's Day! They are quick, easy, and so festive without using any artificial colors, which can be difficult during this time of year.
These are a wonderful treat on their own, or you can even add them onto a Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board or even into a Homemade Valentine’s Day Chocolate Box.
If you're looking for more festive Valentine's Day treats, check out Dark Chocolate Almond Hearts, Valentine’s Day S’More Bars, Easy Hot Chocolate Dip, or Pink Peppermint Ice.
Ingredients
- Butter: I prefer using Nancy's Organic Sea Salt Butter with this recipe. But, if using unsalted, just add 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Check out Best Salted Butter for Baking for more info on butter!
- Cane Sugar: I use organic cane sugar as it's less processed than granulated white sugar so it has a more natural sweetness, versus being overly sweet.
- Vanilla Extract: Use a high quality vanilla extract, not imitation.
- Egg: Use a large egg so you have the right size.
- All Purpose Flour: I use Cairnspring Mills, which is a fresh milled flour company, check them out!
- Chocolate Hearts: I use Lake Champlain Organic Chocolate Hearts for the center. You can use either flavor or both like I did! I have not tested these with other hearts, so if you are using another kind of chocolate heart, you may want to do a test cookie to see if the hearts melt. If so, you can bake the cookies first, then place the hearts in after the cookies come out of the oven and have cooled for 5 to 10 minutes.
*For a full list of ingredients and measurements, visit the recipe card below.
Baker's Tips for Chocolate Heart Thumbprint Cookies
- Always weigh ingredients for the best results.
- Make sure your butter is soft. I like to leave butter out on the counter to soften naturally at room temperature, which always yields the best results! But, if you do use the microwave, only do 10 seconds at a time, even if you have to do intervals.
- If you want to make these cookies year round, you can replace the chocolate hearts with just a piece of dark or milk chocolate!
- Gluten Free: Replace the organic flour with 397 grams (2 ½ cups plus 1 tablespoon) gluten free flour blend.
- High Altitude: Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom.
- These are shortbread cookies, so they are best kept in a cool dry place. This means just leave them out on the counter and don't put into a tupperware or airtight container as they can become soggy if you do that.
How to Make Chocolate Heart Thumbprint Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted the the paddle attachment, add the butter, cane sugar, and vanilla extract.
- Mix on low until combined, then set a timer for 5 minutes and mix until the mixture is light in color and fluffy.
- Add the egg, and mix until combined.
- Add the flour, and mix on low until combined into a smooth dough.
- Using your hands, form the dough into 24 balls and place on the prepared cookie sheets. Press a chocolate heart into the center of each cookie.
- Bake for 19 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom. Let cool completely on the cookie sheets. (If you're baking at high altitude, be sure to check the Notes at the bottom of the recipe for high altitude baking time).
Recipe FAQ's
Yes! There's a simple adjustment in the Notes at the bottom of the recipe to make these gluten free. I also list my preferred gluten free flour blend.
Yes, all of my recipes can be made at high altitude with just one simple adjust (some don't even have any!). Just look in the Notes at the bottom of the recipe for the high altitude instruction if you are baking above 5,000 feet.
These Chocolate Heart Thumbprint Cookies are a shortbread cookie, so they are buttery and dense. They are best stored in a cool dry place, which really just means out at room temperature and not in an airtight container. I just leave these on a platter on the counter while we enjoy them for a few days!
More Valentine's Day Recipes
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Chocolate Heart Thumbprint Cookies
Equipment
- Digital Food Scale
- Stand Mixer
- Half Sheet Pan
- Parchment Paper Sheets
Ingredients
- 226 grams salted butter (softened)
- 170 grams cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 383 grams all purpose flour
- 24 Lake Champlain Organic Chocolate Hearts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted the the paddle attachment, add the butter, cane sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix on low until combined, then set a timer for 5 minutes and mix until the mixture is light in color and fluffy.
- Add the egg, and mix until combined. Add the flour, and mix on low until combined into a smooth dough.
- Using your hands, form the dough into 24 balls and place on the prepared cookie sheets. Press a chocolate heart into the center of each cookie.
- Bake for 19 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom. Let cool completely on the cookie sheets.
- Store in a cool dry place for up to 3 days.
Video
Notes
- Always weigh ingredients for the best results.
- Make sure your butter is soft. I like to leave butter out on the counter to soften naturally at room temperature, which always yields the best results! But, if you do use the microwave, only do 10 seconds at a time, even if you have to do intervals.
- If you want to make these cookies year round, you can replace the chocolate hearts with just a piece of dark or milk chocolate!
- Gluten Free: Replace the organic flour with 397 grams (2 ½ cups plus 1 tablespoon) gluten free flour blend.
- High Altitude: Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned on the bottom.
- These are shortbread cookies, so they are best kept in a cool dry place. This means just leave them out on the counter and don't put into a tupperware or airtight container as they can become soggy if you do that.
Nutrition
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