My mother has made these sweetheart cookies since I was a child. It’s always been one of my favorites. She would make a bunch of Christmas cookies and freeze them and I would always sneak some out here and there until they were all gone. Then I couldn’t wait until Christmas for her to make these great cookies again!
I suppose they could also be a Valentine’s Day cookie as well. Being it’s a short bread cookie with red jelly it would be easy to make it very festive. You would just need to try and make it look like hearts instead of a circular hole with the jelly. Find a heart shaped plastic or metal object that you could use to press into the cookie dough and make a heart shape impression (you could also use other shaped objects like Christmas trees, smiley faces, etc… to change for the season or occasion).
I also found instead of jelly that using preserves works and tastes better. You can use strawberry, raspberry or blueberry preserves. I have done the first two, just be sure for the raspberry preserves that you buy seedless preserves – the seeds may be an added texture that most will find undesireable in a cookie.
Sweetheart cookies with jelly
Ingredients:
3/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1 + 1/2 cup flour
dash of salt
jelly – any kind
Directions:
Add all the above ingredients except the jelly in a bowl and mix well with an electric mixer. Chill the dough for one hour. Form the dough into small balls with your hands and then place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. Make an impression with your thumb or fingers and then fill this hole with the preserves. If you are going to be using this cookie recipe for Valentine’s Day instead then find a heart shaped object you can press into the dough to leave a heart-shaped hole (as I stated above there is no limit to the types and shapes of impressions you can use. Just find objects shaped like Christmas trees, 4 leaf clovers – St. Patricks Day, a star, etc…).
Bake at 350° until very light brown. Keep in mind that ovens do vary in their temperatures and cooking times so keep a close eye on the cookies so they don’t get too brown. Remember they are a short bread cookie so you want them to be light in color and not too hard. As a general guide I have found you should bake them for about eight minutes or so. This recipe makes around 30 cookies depending on the size of the balls of cookie dough that you use prior to baking (obviously, you can make the cookies bigger or smaller based on this). I always double the recipe so there are plenty of these great sweetheart shortbread cookies to go around.
Sweetheart cookies 1
To add a Valentines Day touch you can always, after baking, place a candy heart (you know the ones that say I love you, will you be my Valentine?, etc.) in the middle of the jelly. For Christmas use a tree or star shaped object. Let cool and then serve and enjoy.
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