When I first saw these two-tone cookies with cocoa and vanilla, I literally fell in love with them! I absolutely had to make them, especially since Valentine’s Day was coming up; what better occasion, I thought!? But then, between saying and doing, something went wrong and I didn’t manage to write the recipe here on the blog in time! So, I decided they could be a sweet treat symbol of love in general, the kind you feel for a parent, a mom, a dad, or for a brother, a sister, a friend! Besides being beautiful and super heartwarming, they are truly delicious, making them perfect for serving at breakfast or as a sweet treat at the end of a meal, and, believe me, they are the ultimate when accompanied by a steaming cup of tea or hot chocolate. Obviously, given the occasion and the people they are dedicated to, I made them in heart shape, but of course, if enjoyed in ordinary everyday life, they can be made in a thousand other different shapes! The pastry I used is the same as my legendary and well-tested swirl cookies but with some slight modifications. Essentially, a single dough to make two different pastries, so an easy and practical recipe to speed up a process that already requires a little more patience! However, if you make them with your kids, fun is guaranteed!
If you are a cookie lover, I invite you to take a look at these other ideas and replicate them:
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 30 cookies approx.
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients:
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
- 5.3 oz butter (cold, diced)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp liquor (of choice if necessary)
- 1 pinch salt
- as needed strawberry jam
Tools:
⚠ THIS RECIPE CONTAINS ONE OR MORE AFFILIATE LINKS. The products I recommend are the same ones I use in my recipes; purchasing them through my blog helps support me and my work, and it won’t cost you anything extra!
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Dough scraper
- 1 Plastic wrap
- 1 Rolling pin
- 1 Cookie cutter
- 4 Parchment paper
- 1 Baking mat
- 1 Cooling rack
- 1 Cookie cutter
Steps:
In a large bowl, sift and mix the two flours.
Add the cold butter cut into cubes.
Then work it until you get a sandy mixture, but without working it too long, to avoid excessively heating the butter.
Add the egg, the vanilla extract, the pinch of salt, and the sugar.
Knead everything very quickly with your hands.
Once you’ve obtained a compact and uniform mixture, divide it into two equal parts using a dough scraper.
Add the sifted cocoa to one of these, along with a tablespoon of liquor to help absorption more quickly.
After the necessary time has passed, roll out both pastries between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment paper to a thickness of about 1/8 inch if you want to make double filled cookies, a bit thicker for traditional cookies without filling.
Cut small hearts from the white pastry using the appropriate cutters.
Cut the same number of small hearts from the cocoa pastry.
Now, place the white hearts in the empty spaces of the cocoa pastry.
Do the same with the cocoa hearts in the empty spaces of the white pastry.
Roll the rolling pin over the pastries to adhere the hearts well to the bases.
Cut the cookies using a large heart-shaped cutter.
If you have decided to fill them, half of these should be cut out with a smaller heart cutter. Lift them one by one using a spatula and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a recyclable perforated baking mat.
If you decide not to cut them, simply cut them to a slightly thicker 3/16 inch. It’s up to you. Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 356°F, for about 12 minutes. The cookies should be colored at the bottom, along the entire edge, but light on the surface.
Proceed to quickly re-knead the pastries and create other cookies with a really cute marbled effect until all the dough is used up. Once baked, transfer them one by one to a cooling rack and let them cool completely.
Once cooled, fill the bases of the uncut cookies with strawberry jam and close by sealing with the cut ones.
Let the heart cookies cool completely before storing them in airtight containers.
You can combine cocoa cookies with other cocoa ones or alternate them with neutral ones to create color games. It will be really fun!
And there you have it…your two-tone heart cookies on hearts are ready to be gifted and enjoyed!
Bon Appétit from La Cucina di FeFè!
Storage
👉 You can store the two-tone heart cookies in both the simple version and the double bull’s eye version at room temperature, inside airtight containers for 2-3 weeks.
