Happy almost Valentines Day! We’re big fans of the holiday around here (more our plans here) and make naturally-colored sugar cookies every year. But in an effort to keep things fresh - variety is the spice of life after all - I decided to turn our usual cookies into Conversation Heart-inspired, strawberry cookies. And oh boy are they as fun as they are delicious! Scroll down for the recipe…

I’m a big fan of naturally-colored frosting. The secret is freeze-dried fruit, ground to a fine powder. We’ve used strawberries, strawberry-banana, mango, berries…but everyone’s favorite has been strawberry. It lends a punch of fruit flavor and the perfect pink color for Valentines Day. BTW I get my freeze-dried fruit in the health-food section of our local Fred Meyer.

Strawberry Conversation-Heart Inspired Cookies

makes 8 large hearts

Ingredients

For the cookies

1 cup salted butter at room temp

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg at room temp

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp almond extract (optional)

2 1/4-cup all-purpose flour

For the buttercream

1/2 cup butter at room temp

1 oz cream cheese at room temp

1 1/2 cups powder sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 oz freeze dried strawberries, ground into a powder

whole milk, as needed

Make Cookies

Heat oven to 350 and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy (3+ minutes). Add the egg and vanilla and continue to mix until combined. Add flour and mix until dough comes together to form a loose ball.
Lightly flour a surface and roll dough out to 1/4” thick. Cut out cookies and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving at least 1” between cookies (I like this concentric heart cookie cutter set). Collect dough scraps and knead into a ball, roll back out, and cut additional cookies. Refrigerate cookie sheet for 10 minutes.
Bake cookies until barely golden, about 10 minutes (start with 8 minutes for smaller cookies! Remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

Blend the freeze-dried fruit into a powder using a blender or food processor. The powder is really fine so you’ll want to make sure that the top of the blender/processor is completely closed during this step. If the seeds bother you, run the powder through a fine sieve.
Cream butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer (or handheld mixer) until smooth, 3-5 minutes. Add powder sugar, half-cup at a time, and mix again. You’ll probably need to scrape down the bowl during this step. Add in extract and mix until fluffy and smooth, 3-5 minutes.
Remove 1/2 cup of frosting, cover, and set aside for piping letters on cookies. In the large bowl of frosting, add 1 tsp of ground strawberries and mix until combined. Scrape down the bowl and mix again until the color is completely mixed in. Now you can assess the flavor and color and add more strawberry powder as needed. The powder flavor is potent, so be careful not to add too much. And as a dash of milk as needed - the powder dries the dough out the more you put in. The end result should be creamy, fluffy, and easy to work with.
Frost cookies all over with strawberry buttercream. If you have time, refrigerate the cookies for an hour or more to firm the base layer of frosting. Pipe on letters using a #2 or #3 tip and piping bag (or a ziplock bag with the corner cut). Piping letters isn’t exactly easy if you’re not a pastry chef, so I recommend trying some letters on a paper towel before you start on the cookies.
Here are a few fun, short phrases to try… LUV U, B KIND, CALL MOM, AWE-SOME, XOXO, QT, CRAZY 4U, SO COOL, U ROCK, ME & YOU, TLC, BE MINE, NUTS 4 U, OOH LALA, CUTIE PIE, HEY BAE, UR MY JAM, SMILE
And a few longer ones I love…MY BETTER HALF, DISHES ARE UNLOADED!, NAH YOU SLEEP IN, I’LL DO THE LAUNDRY, KIDS ARE ASLEEP