Cynthia Flowers’s Red Velvet Snickerdoodle Pull-Apart Hearts Recipe

Time Required:

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Chilling time: 30-40 minutes
Bake Time: 10 minutes

Dry Ingredients:

• 2 ¼ Cups All Purpose Flour
• ½ Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
• 2 tsp Cream of Tartar
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• ½ tsp Salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Butter (unsalted, room temperature)
• ½ Cup Granulated sugar
• 1 Cup Lightly Packed Brown Sugar
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• ½ Cup Chocolate Chips (Milk, Semi-Sweet, or Dark)
• ½ Cup Heavy Cream
• Red Food Coloring

Coating:

• Ground Cinnamon
• Sugar
• (See instructions and notes below for measurements.)

Icing:

• 4 Tbsp Water
• 1 ½ tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 3 Cups Powdered Sugar
• ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
• Food Coloring (if desired)

Cookie Prep:

1. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and set to the side.

2. Cream the butter and sugars together in a large mixing bowl.

3. In a double boiler, melt your chocolate completely (See Note 1).  Remove from heat, add the heavy cream, and mix until incorporated. This makes a simple chocolate ganache.

4. Mix the chocolate ganache with the creamed butter and sugar. It doesn’t need to be completely incorporated before integrating the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet until all are combined. From time to time, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a spatula. The dough will be thick and almost fudge-like. This is the desired result.

6. Once everything is integrated, add as much food coloring as you feel is needed and mix until the color is even. Red food color can have a bitter taste, so it is recommended to use no-taste coloring or use less.

7. Scrape down the bowl one last time and smooth the top. Cover the dough with plastic wrap. Place the plastic wrap along the surface of the dough and try to have as little air between the dough and plastic wrap as you can (See Note 2). Then, chill the dough for about 30 minutes.

Shaping the Cookies (See Note 3):

1. In a small bowl, mix a combination of sugar and cinnamon to coat your cookies. For this recipe, the mixture is equal parts cinnamon and sugar. (See Note 4)

2. Take the dough from the refrigerator and scoop 1 Tbsp of dough. The dough is sticky and will get on your hands. Do not add extra flour, as it will change the texture of the cookie. The warmer the dough gets, the sticker it becomes.

3. Roll the Tbsp of dough in the cinnamon sugar.

4. Shape each ball into a teardrop shape, keeping the cookie about ¾ of an inch thick.

5. Roll the shaped ball into the cinnamon sugar again to help with sticking and add a bit more texture to the cookie.

6. Chill the teardrops for about 10 minutes in the refrigerator (See Note 5)

7. When ready to bake, place two teardrops together in the shape of a heart. Do not worry if the inside edges are not sticking together. Dust away a bit of the coating along the join and set it as close as possible to its mate on the baking sheet. The baking process will fuse the two cookies together.

8. To get a better ‘heart’ shape in the final baked product, exaggerate the shape a bit to account for the cookie spreading while baking. I have provided an image below as an example. Also, pinch the tip for a sharper point.

Baking:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place some of your shaped cookies on the pan. Do not overcrowd. Leave about an inch of space between cookies. Get creative with the placement of the cookies, given their unique shape.

3. Bake your cookies in the oven for about 10 minutes.

4. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Decorating with Icing (once cookies are completely cooled):

1. In a bowl, mix the powdered sugar and water together. We are looking for it to be stiff to stir but able to flow off the spoon. If the icing is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add a few drops of water. Make sure to thoroughly mix before adding more of either. Sometimes, mixing is all that is needed.

2. Add the cinnamon and vanilla and mix until combined. The cinnamon will add more spice to the cookie and cut the sweetness of the icing. Add as much or as little as you desire.

3. Place the cookies on parchment or a clean cooling rack over parchment.

4. With a spoon, scoop some of the icing and gently smooth icing over half of the cookie, being careful not to break the cookie. Make sure to guide the icing along the edge of the cookie and allow it to drip off onto the parchment, giving the cookie a clean edge.

5. If desired, as the icing is drying, dip a toothpick in food coloring and swirl a design into the icing on the cookie.

6. Let the icing dry. It hardens fairly quickly on the surface. However, to ensure your designs are not ruined when storing them, keep them out for a couple of hours or put them in the refrigerator to speed up the drying process.

Notes:

1. Don’t have a double boiler? No problem. Put the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat it in 30-second bursts on 50% power, stirring each time until melted.

2. Using the plastic wrap on the dough prevents the flavors and smells of the refrigerator from clinging to your dough when chilling for longer periods.

3. Don’t have the time or desire to shape the cookies? No worries. Instead of two 1 Tbsp balls, make one 2 Tbsp ball and roll into the cinnamon sugar thoroughly. Flatten between your hands until it is around ¾ in thick, then toss in the coating one more time and put on the baking sheet. No extra chilling is required. Skip to the baking portion of the recipe.

4. If you want a sweeter cookie, add more sugar to the coating. If you want a warmer (spicier) cookie, add more cinnamon. You can also use coarse sugar to give the cookie more texture.  However, that will be hard to decorate if that is desired.

5. I recommend chilling the dough balls on a plate in a container. Chilling them on the pan you intend to bake with will make the cookies take longer to bake.

Credits:

Cynthia Flowers’s recipe was created by Donald Jay’s daughter, Cynthia.