Heart Shaped Vegan Valentine’s Cookies

These vegan Valentine’s cookies are soft, slightly chewy, and ‘buttery’ in flavour. Heart shaped vegan cookies that are fun to make and decorate. Perfect for children to help with!

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and I realised my blog is severely lacking in Valentine’s-themed cookies! I have a few pink and red desserts but I wanted to add some more to make a small collection. You can never have enough Valentine’s-themed desserts, amiright?

If you don’t have a ‘Valentine’, don’t fret. Make these vegan heart shaped cookies to enjoy yourself, with your close friends, children or other family members. I’m personally not one to celebrate the holiday but I do love me some themed baking (and eating)!

I decided to make cookies because they are my favourite type of dessert, they’re really easy to make and they’re fun to decorate too. You can use a variety of mix-ins like chocolate chips, food colourings, cake sprinkles and icing to make these dairy-free cookies your own.

They are basically heart-shaped sugar cookies, just without the eggs or dairy. They’re soft and ‘buttery’ with a slight chew. Very delicious on their own but they taste even better with some icing on top.

I used a simple water icing with pink food colouring added but I’ve included a recipe for vegan royal icing below if you’d prefer to use that.

Ingredients you’ll need

• Dairy-free margarine. I recommend using margarine and not block ‘butter’- the dough will be too dry otherwise. I used Vitalite.
• Caster sugar. These dairy-free cookies aren’t as sweet as some of my other cookie recipes which is why I added the icing. If you prefer your cookies less sweet, just skip the icing all together.
• Vanilla extract. For a little extra flavour.
• Plain flour. Also known as all-purpose flour.
• Soy milk. This will help the dough come together. I use unsweetened organic soy milk.
• Food colouring. This is optional so feel free to skip it if you don’t like using colourings. I added some pink food colouring to half of my cookie dough, to make pink cookies, and some to my icing. I recommend gel food colour for best results- I used PME gel.
• Icing. If you’re making royal icing, you’ll need some aqua faba, cream of tartar and icing sugar. You can also add a little vanilla if you like. For a simple water icing, you’ll just need icing sugar and water.

More vegan Valentine’s Day dessert recipes:

If you like these cookies and fancy making another pink/red/romantic dessert for Valentine’s, try one of these:

• Chocolate covered strawberries
• Hidden heart cupcakes (vanilla cupcakes with a secret pink heart baked inside)
• Strawberry cupcakes
• Chocolate strawberry cupcakes
• 2-Ingredient chocolate truffles
• Chocolate fondue (and lots of fondue dipping ideas)

How to make heart shaped vegan Valentine’s Day cookies

Step 1:

In a large bowl, cream together 150g of dairy-free margarine and 150g of caster sugar. Then stir in 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Step 2:

Add 290g of plain flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 2 tablespoons of soy milk. Mix it into the margarine mixture with a wooden spoon. When it starts to stick together, use your hands to press it into a ball of dough. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour and if it’s too dry, add an extra splash of soy milk to help it come together.

Cover the dough and place it in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill. Doing this will help the cookies to hold their shape while they’re in the oven.

Step 3:

While the dough is chilling, preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F and line a large tray or two with baking paper.

This recipe makes around 24 vegan Valentine’s cookies so you can bake them all together, bake half at a time, or save half of the cookie dough for another day.

Step 4:

Once the dough has chilled, you can add the food colouring if you’re using it. I added some pink food colouring to half of my dough and left the other half uncoloured. Gently knead it in until well combined and there are no streaks of colour left.

Step 5:

Roll the dough out onto a floured surface until it’s around 1/4 of an inch thick. You don’t want the cookies to be too thin as this will make them hard and crunchy instead of soft and chewy.

Use a 3-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out your dairy-free cookies, re-rolling leftover pieces of dough until it’s all used up.

Step 6:

Place the cookies onto your lined baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes. You’ll know when they’re ready when the edges are firm to the touch and the cookies have tiny cracks all over. Do not let them brown otherwise they’ll be too crunchy.

Once baked, leave your eggless heart-shaped cookies to cool completely.

Royal icing or water icing?

Either goes for these vegan heart shaped cookies! I made a water icing because it’s quicker and easier. The only difference between the two is that the royal icing dries quicker and firmer.

For water (glacé icing)

Mix 400g of icing sugar with 6 tablespoons of cold water. To make it thinner, add more water and to make it thicker, add more icing sugar.

For royal icing

Step 1:

Place 5 tablespoons of aqua faba, 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract into a large bowl. Use an electric whisk or stand mixer to whisk until frothy.

Step 2:

Measure out 450g of icing sugar. Add half of it to the bowl and mix it in gently with a wooden spoon. Add the rest and repeat.

Step 3:

Whisk it up again with the electric mixer until smooth and glossy.

Assembly:

Add any food colourings you like to your icing then place it into a piping bag with a small to medium writing nozzle. Pipe the icing onto your cooled cookies.

Sprinkle over some cake decorations or edible glitter while the icing is still wet. I used Tesco’s pink and red love heart sprinkles.

Let the cookies sit at room temperature until the icing is firm to the touch and enjoy!

FAQ:

I hope you like these vegan Valentine’s cookies! If you make them yourself at home, please let me know how you get on by leaving a comment and rating below. Happy baking! xo

5 from 4 votes

Print

Vegan Valentine’s Day Cookies (Heart Shaped)

Easy, soft and chewy vegan heart shaped cookies. Eggless and dairy-free.

Course Dessert

Cuisine vegan

Keyword vegan valentines cookies

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Chill time 30 minutes

Servings 24 cookies

Calories 144 kcal

Ingredients

• 150 g Dairy-free margarine
• 150 g Caster sugar
• 2 Teaspoons Vanilla extract
• 290 g Plain flour
• ½ Teaspoon Baking soda
• 2 Tablespoons Soy milk
• Vegan pink or red food colouring (optional)

For the icing:

• 400 g Icing sugar
• 6 Tablespoons Cold water
• Vegan pink or red food colouring

To decorate:

• Valentine's cake sprinkles (Make sure they're vegan-friendly! I used Tesco pink and red heart sprinkles.)

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, mix together the margarine, caster sugar and vanilla.

2. Add the flour, baking soda and soy milk and mix well. When it starts to stick together, use your hands to press it into a ball of dough. Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.

3. While the dough is chilling, preheat your oven to 180°C (or 160°C for fan ovens). Line a large tray or 2 with baking paper.

4. After the dough has chilled, gently knead in a small amount of food colouring if using. I dyed half of mine pink and kept the other half uncoloured.

5. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to ¼-inch thick. Use a 3-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out your cookies, re-rolling leftover pieces of dough until it's all used up.

6. Place the cookies on your lined baking tray and bake for 10-15 minutes. You'll know they're ready when they're firm to the touch at the edges and the cookies have tiny cracks on the surface. Let them cool completely.

7. Mix together the icing sugar and water until smooth and glossy. Stir in a small amount of food colouring if using.

8. Transfer the icing to a piping bag fitted with a small to medium writing nozzle. Pipe the icing onto the cookies and sprinkle over the decorations while the icing is still wet.

9. Let the cookies sit at room temperature until the icing is firm to the touch.

Recipe Notes

• You can also use vegan royal icing to decorate these cookies if you prefer.
• I use PME food gel colouring.

Nutrition Facts

Vegan Valentine's Day Cookies (Heart Shaped)

Amount Per Serving (1 iced cookie)

Calories 144 Calories from Fat 27

% Daily Value*

Fat 3g5%

Sodium 53mg2%

Carbohydrates 27g9%

Sugar 22g24%

Protein 1g2%

* All values are an estimate only and will vary depending on the food brands used.