Finish Off Your Date Night With These Rainbow Heart Cookies

Dates can be stressful, so make food the least of your worries with these rainbow heart cookies. I came up with the idea while searching for recipes looking for Valentine's Day. I didn't want to do the typical dipped strawberry (not to mention my boyfriend doesn't like strawberries) and I don't like chocolate. My options were limited. 

Then I found Eugenie Kitchen's cookies. They were so colorful and caught my attention, but after watching the video I knew there was a way I could simplify it. Thus, this recipe was born. 

Rainbow Heart Cookies

• Prep Time:1 hr 30 mins
• Cook Time:7 mins
• Total Time:1 hr 37 mins
• Servings:20
• Medium

Ingredients

• 1 pack sugar cookie mix - I used Betty Crocker
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 egg
• Food coloring
• Small to medium sized heart-shaped cookie cutter
• Optional sprinkles for garnish

• Step 1

  Preheat oven to 350°F, or according to sugar cookie recipe. Set aside 1/3 of the cookie dough for the uncolored outside filling and divide the rest of the dough into six equal parts. Add food coloring to the six parts using liquid or gel food dye. Make the colors red, orange (red and yellow), yellow, green, blue, and purple (red and blue).
  #SpoonTip: mixing the dye with your hands works best (and your hands will look cool).

  

• Step 2

  Take your heart-shaped cookie cutter and measure the height from the bottom edge of the heart to either hump. Divide that number by 6. This will be the approximate height of each layer.

  

• Step 3

  Flatten each color to the approximate height that you just calculated. You want every color to be the same size so that when you stack them they make a rectangle.
  #SpoonTip: flatten the dough on a cutting board with plastic wrap on top so that you can flip over the cutting board and move the dough without breaking the shape.

  

• Step 4

  Stack all of the colored doughs in the order of red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

  

• Step 5

  Cut the block of dough into one-inch thick strips.

  

• Step 6

  Cut out hearts in the strips of dough.
  #SpoonTip: Make more cookies with the leftover dough. Squish it together and cut out fun shapes for a tie-dye-looking cookie.

  

• Step 7

  Stack the hearts. To keep the shape defined put in the freezer for 15-20 minutes (I didn't do this, so some hearts got a little squished in the process).

  

• Step 8

  Cover the hearts in the uncolored cookie dough that was set aside before. Start by filling in the middle between the two heart humps and then cover the rest in dough. Be gentle or the hearts will lose their shape.

  

• Step 9

  If you want to add sprinkles, brush the outside with some butter and then cover in sprinkles. Slice the dough and bake for 7-10 minutes.