Conversation Heart Sandwich Cookies

Continuing the conversation heart theme this Valentine's Day, I made sandwich cookies! I've seen a ton of conversation heart macarons but figured, let's make life easy and not make macarons. I still haven't fully mastered those dag-gone cookies.

Anyway! Back to the sandwich cookies! So I made a batch of sugar cookies, dyed three different colors. I used the teal, pink and orange from this set but you might want to go pastel. I did the brighter/darker colors because I thought they would get lighter when I baked them... but they didn't... soooo... yeah... Don't do that. Unless you want to. You do you.

Then I cut them out into hearts. I used the 2-inch heart cookie cutter from an older version of this set. And yes, I'm totally jealous that the set is now pink. 

Side note, can we talk about my new silicone mats for a second? Aren't they the best?! Of course they're especially perfect for me as a fellow Sarah but if you haven't checked out Sarah Hearts before you totally should. 

I then refrigerated them for half an hour to help them keep their shape, popped them in the oven for 8 minutes and let them completely cool. Once that was all done I piped out some cute conversation starters onto half of the cookies. That's what they're supposed to be, right? Conversation starters?

I then whipped up a batch of buttercream and piped it onto the blank half of the cookies and sandwiched them together. 

And voila! Once done you can sit back and enjoy with your bae while binging on some Netflix. 

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tbs vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tbs baking powder
milk
gel food coloring (you might want to use lighter colors)
red melting wafers

BUTTERCREAM INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbs vanilla extract
1-2 tbs milk

INSTRUCTIONS
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the butter and sugar together until just incorporated. Lightly beat the egg and vanilla and add to butter-sugar mixture. Mix again on low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl intermittently as needed.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder. Add to the butter-sugar-egg mixture.  Mix on low speed until a dough is formed and there are no longer any streaks of butter in the mixing bowl. The dough will often clump around the paddle attachment while being mixed. This is normal and a good sign that your dough is the right consistency.  If your mixture does not come together and is crumbly, add milk 1 tbs at a time until the dough clumps. 

Divide batter three times (or however many times to get the colors you want) and mix in gel food coloring until the desired color is reached. I recommend dividing it up and then putting the separate batches back in the mixer to mix in the food coloring. 

Roll out each batch of dough onto an unfloured surface. Cut out your heart shapes with a 2-inch heart cookie cutter and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Take the leftover dough and roll it back out and cut out more hearts. You can continue doing this until you've run out of dough or you've reached your desired amount of cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Refrigerate your hearts for 30 minutes and then bake for 8-12 minutes. This is a good time to make the buttercream. Recipe below. 

Let cool completely. Melt your red candy melts per instructions. Place in a piping bag fitted with a #1 piping tip.  Pipe on whatever sayings you want onto half of the cookies. 

Pipe your buttercream onto the blank half of the cookies. Sandwich together.

BUTTERCREAM INSTRUCTIONS
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until light and fluffy. Add 1.5 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn't blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla. Beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time.

(Taken from the Classic Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe from Savory Sweet Life)