These heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies are soft, chewy, and made from classic chocolate chip cookie dough that's shaped into hearts. With just 10 minutes of prep time, they're an easy choice for Valentine's Day, and the recipe includes simple tips to help the cookies hold their shape and bake evenly every time.
If you're planning a full spread with Valentine's Day treats, pair these cookies with our heart-shaped strawberry hand pies and peanut butter heart cookies for a festive mix of heart-shaped desserts that's perfect for celebrating the holiday.
🔍 Quick Look: Heart-Shaped Chocolate Chip Cookies
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 10 minutes
- ❄️ Chill Time: 2 hours
- 🔥 Bake Time: 30 minutes
- 🕒 Total Time: 2 hours 40 minutes
- 🍪 Yield: 20 cookies
- 💡 Technique: Reshaping hot cookies into hearts or use heart silicone molds
- 🥣 Tools: Baking Sheet, Spatula, Heart Cookie Cutter or Silicone Mold (both optional, you can easily manually shape the hearts)
- ⭐ Difficulty: Easy (a very beginner-friendly Valentine's Day dessert!)
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❤️ Why You'll Love These Valentine’s Cookies
- Proven, well-tested cookie dough recipe: This heart-shaped chocolate chip cookie recipe is based on my Halloween Chocolate Chip Cookies, which is one of my most popular chocolate chip cookie recipes with tons of great reviews. It's a reliable, well-tested recipe that bakes evenly and stays soft and chewy, making it perfect for shaping into hearts.
- This method works with any chocolate chip cookie dough: While this recipe uses a classic dough, if you want to switch things up, you can use one of our fun and unique chocolate chip cookie dough recipes to customize the flavor while following the same simple shaping technique.
- Great for parties and special occasions: These heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies are a popular choice for Valentine's Day baking, weddings, anniversaries, bake sales, and anytime you want a festive twist on traditional chocolate chip cookies at home (try serving with homemade strawberry milk for a delicious Valentine’s day pairing!).
Jump to:
- 🔍 Quick Look: Heart-Shaped Chocolate Chip Cookies
- ❤️ Why You'll Love These Valentine’s Cookies
- Key Ingredients
- How to Make Heart Chocolate Chip Cookies (Step-By-Step)
- Heart Cookies Using Silicone Molds
- Tips for Success 💕
- Heart Chocolate Chip Cookies FAQ
- Storing and Making Ahead
- Looking for More Valentine’s Day Recipes?
- Heart Shaped Chocolate Chip Cookies
Key Ingredients
See the recipe card for a full list of ingredients and quantities.
- Brown Sugar: The recipe uses light brown sugar, but you can substitute dark brown sugar in a pinch.
- Unsalted Butter: This recipe calls for unsalted butter, but you can substitute salted butter by cutting the added salt to ¼ tsp.
- Chocolate Chips: You can use your favorite chocolate chips here. Semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate, white chocolate. Even chopped up chocolate bars or chocolate chunks will work great, as will red and pink M&Ms for a Valentine's Day M&M cookie.
- Sprinkles (optional): I love these Valentine's Day Sprinkles but you can use your favorite jimmies or nonpareil sprinkles.
How to Make Heart Chocolate Chip Cookies (Step-By-Step)
Making The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
1. Mix Butter and Sugar: Add the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to the bowl and mix until combined. You can use a standing mixer, a hand held mixer, or mix by hand.
2. Add Wet Ingredients: Then add in the vanilla and egg, and continue mixing until combined.
3. Add Dry Ingredients: Turn off the mixer and add in the all-purpose flour, salt, and baking soda. If using an electric mixer, mix on low until it starts to combine. Then turn up the speed and mix another 15-30 seconds until it is smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary to make sure everything is incorporated. Do not over-mix the batter.
4. Add Chocolate Chips and Sprinkles: Then, using a spatula or large spoon gently fold in the optional sprinkles and chocolate chips.
Shaping Chocolate Chip Cookies Into Hearts
5. Shape Cookie Hearts: Place a heart shaped cookie cutter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Gently press two tablespoon balls of dough into a heart shaped cookie cutter. Remove the cookie cutter and repeat making hearts with all the dough. You can also hand form the cookies into a general heart shape. They don’t need to be perfect as we will be reshaping them when they get out of the oven.
6. Cover and Chill: Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1.5 to 2 hours, or up to 24 hours.You also don’t have to worry how far apart they are as we are chilling the cookie dough, not baking it at this time.
Baking Heart-Shaped Chocolate Chip Cookies
7. Bake: After the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350℉. Place the balls of dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, making sure they are about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges are golden. If using a silicone mold, bake an additional few minutes.
8. Shape Hot Cookies: Remove the cookies from the oven. If they cookies have spread a lot, use a spatula to press back into the shape of a heart. This must be done right when they come out of the oven. If they cool down, you can not reshape them.
9. Cool and Enjoy: Let cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes after shaping, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling. Enjoy!
Heart Cookies Using Silicone Molds
Want perfectly shaped heart cookies? Try baking the chocolate chip cookies in an oven-safe heart-shaped silicone mold! These turn out so cute. They are thick and delicious, with crispy edges and a soft center, similar to a cookie bar.
If using a silicone mold for cookies:
- Add the cookie dough directly to the mold and chill before baking. If you only have one mold, chill the dough in the mixing bowl, then add to the silicone mold right before baking.
- Depending on the size of the mold, they might need a few more minutes baking than the original cookie directions call for.
- When done, let the cookies cool in the mold for 5-10 minutes, then flip them upside down to release the cookies. If necessary, gently tap the mold so the cookies fall out.
Tips for Success 💕
- Reshape the cookie while they are hot! Shaping the cookies must be done while they are super hot, so it helps to only bake a few cookies at time. Once they cool down even a little bit, you can not reshape them anymore. It's very similar to this cookie hack, but instead of making a perfect circle, you're making hearts.
- Measure out the flour using the spoon and swipe method of fluffing up the ingredients and then spooning into the measure cups and swiping the excess off the top with a knife. If you dip the measuring cup directly into the flour it can pack down and you will add too much flour to the recipe.
- Be sure to chill the dough for at least 1.5-2 hours. You can also make and chill the dough up to 24 hours in advance.
Heart Chocolate Chip Cookies FAQ
Sure! I love this particular cookie recipe because it's so simple, but you can turn any cookie, such as an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, double chocolate chip cookies, or pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, brown butter sugar cookies, into a heart shaped cookies by using the methods above.
Because this is a super simple cookie recipe that uses melted butter, it's important to chill the dough. They’re still spread a bit, but that is why we push them back into heart shapes once they get out of the oven. It helps to only bake 5-6 cookies at a time so you have time to reshape them before the cool.
I used this Wilton mold, but you can use any oven-safe heart shaped silicone mold. Just know the size of the mold can change the baking time of the cookies.
Once the cookies have cooled, simple turn it upside down and they should fall right out! if they don't you can run a knife around the edges of the cookies then reflip. If they still don't release, gently tap the molds when they're flipped over, and they should come out.
Yes, these Valentine's Day-themed heart cookies are super freezer-friendly! You can freeze the dough both baked or unbaked, and they'll last 2-3 months in the freezer tightly wrapped in an airtight container or plastic wrap.
Let the baked cookies defrost and room temperature before eating. And, if you’re baking the cookies from frozen dough, simply add a few extra minutes to the baking time. No need to defrost the cookie dough before baking.
Storing and Making Ahead
These chocolate chip heart cookies will last about 3-5 days in an airtight container at room temperature. You can also freeze the cookies (either baked or unbaked) for 2-3 months.
The unbaked dough can be made up to a day in advance and stored in the refrigerator (making them perfect for a make-ahead dessert).
And, the individual balls of unbaked dough can also be frozen up to a month or two. You can bake the dough frozen, just add a few extra minutes of baking time.
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Heart Shaped Chocolate Chip Cookies
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled slightly
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar 67 g
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar 100 g
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour spooned and leveled (186g)
- 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
- 1/2-3/4 cup Valentine's Day sprinkles
Instructions
Cookie Dough
- Add the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to bowl and mix until smooth and combined.
- Mix in the vanilla and egg and continue mixing until combined.
- Add in the flour, salt, and baking soda and mix on low until it starts to combine. Then turn up the speed and mix another 15-30 seconds until it is smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary to make sure everything is incorporated. Try not to over-mix the batter. You want to mix until it is just combined.
- Then, using a spatula or large spoon gently fold in sprinkles and chocolate chips.
Manually Shaping Hearts
- Place a heart shaped cookie cutter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Gently press two tablespoon balls of dough into a cookie cutter. Remove the cookie cutter and repeat making hearts with all the dough. You can also hand form the cookies into a general heart shape. They don't need to be perfect as we will be reshaping them when they get out of the oven.
- You don't have to worry how far apart they are as we are chilling the cookie dough, not baking it at this time. If desired add more sprinkles on top of the cookies, then cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 1.5 to 2 hours, or up to 24 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350℉.
- Place the cookie dough hearts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat, making sure they are 2-3 inches apart as they will spread. I recommend baking only 4-6 cookies as a time as you'll need to shape them when they come out of the oven, and if you bake too many they'll cool before you can shape them all.
- Bake one sheet of cookies at a time for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are golden.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately use a spatula or knife to push the cookies back into the shape of a heart. This must be done right from the oven when they are very hot, or they will not reshape.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling. Repeat with the rest of the chilled dough.
Silicone Mold
- Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Then, add 1-2 tablespoons balls of chilled cookie dough to the oven safe silicone molds and if desired, add more sprinkles on top.
- Bake the cookies directly in the mold for 10-13 minutes. Baking times can vary depending on the silicone molds used, so be sure to check for the edges to be nice and golden.
- Let cool in the silicone mold. When they're mostly cool, flip upside down to remove the cookies. They should fall right out. If they don't, gently tap on the bottom of the mold to loosen them. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
- Measure out the flour using the spoon and swipe method of fluffing up the ingredients and then spooning into the measure cups and swiping the excess off the top with a knife. If you dip the measuring cup directly into the flour it can pack down and you will add too much flour to the recipe.
- Be sure to chill the dough for at least 1.5-2 hours. You can also make and chill the dough up to 24 hours in advance.
- Reshape the cookie while they are hot. Once they cool down even a little bit, you can not reshape them anymore. It helps to only bake a few cookies at a time.
- This method of making heart shaped cookies will work with your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes (or drop cookie recipe!).
- This recipe makes 18-22 cookies. The cookies will last 3-5 days in an airtight container and room temperature, and can be frozen up to two months.
Sophia Assunta says
These are so fun to make and just delicious! I hope you give them a try this Valentine’s Day!