Raspberry Jam Valentine's Day Cookies (2024)

Treat your loved ones to these scrumptious raspberry jam-filled Valentine Cookies this year! Sweet raspberry jam sandwiched between two buttery sugar cookies then dusted with powdered sugar. A gift to yourself or loved ones – these cookies are pretty much love in cookie form!

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I don’t know about you but after the holidays I am pretty much done with cookies for a bit… then Valentine’s call and Boom.. back so sugar land!

Cookies were always a huge part of my childhood and are pretty synonymous with my grandmother. There was never a visit with my grandma that didn’t include tea and cookies. While she never as fancy as jam sandwich cookies she did make a mean shortbread and gingersnap.

I want my kids to have the same upbringing where making cookies for the holidays is a tradition and a shared experience that brings generations together in the kitchen. My kids have been baking with me since they could stand on a chair at the counter. These cookies I am certain will become a new family tradition.

What makes these valentine’s Day cookies great?

• Super simple to make requiring only a few everyday ingredients you likely have in your kitchen
• They look pretty
• Perfect for letting your creative juices flow. You can cut the dough into any shape you like, sandwich them with jam or not, ice them, sprinkle them with sugar… the sky is the limit!
• Fun for the kids to get involved. Even the little ones can have fun using the cookie cutters and decorating.
• They can be filled with any jam you like or even a chocolate spread like Nutella
• These make an excellent give and look fabulous on a cookie tray

Ingredients & Substituions

• Butter – Room temperature unsalted butter.
• Granulated sugar
• Egg – This is the glue that holds the cookies together.
• Vanilla extract
• Confectioners sugar – Yup… this cookie recipe uses sugar in all forms! In Canada, we call confectioner’s sugar icing sugar. And then we’ll dust with more sugar in the end!
• All-purpose flour – Normally for cookies I like to use pastry flour but for these cookies, since we need to have a more stable firmer dough all-purpose flour works best because of its higher protein content.
• Baking powder – The leavening agent that helps the cookies rise…not much just enough to give them a flaky softer texture.
• Raspberry jam – or any jam you prefer but let’s face it raspberry is the best!

Making raspberry valentine cookies

Add the room temperature unsalted butter to a large bowl and beat with a hand-mixer until it is light and fluffy. It should turn lighter in colour. Add in the white sugar and continue to mix until blended. Then add the egg and vanilla and mix a little more.

Add in the confectioner’s sugar and baking powder and mix with the hand-mixer until blended.

Slowly add in the flour a 1/4 cup at a time and continue to mix. The mixture gets tougher to mix near the end so depending on how powerful your hand-mixer is I like to transfer my mixing to a fork or my hands to finish much like you would a shortbread.

The goal is to mix as little as possible at this point so sometimes the pressure of the fork and the warmth of your hands works best to bring the dough together into a ball.

Lightly dust a flat surface with some flour and roll the dough out to a 1/8 inch thickness.

You will need two cookie cutters. One that is larger and one that will fit in the centre of the larger heart but will also leave a 1/2 inch buffer between the two to create a frame of sorts.

Cut the larger heart shapes out first and lay them on a baking sheet. You should be aiming for 20-24 hearts depending on the size of your cookie cutters. Start with 20 and if you have extra dough after you are done cutting the tops then you can always go back and make more.

Place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350F for about 10 minutes or until they are firm and just starting to brown on the edges. Remove from the baking sheet and transfer to a cooling rack.

Repeat the same step by rolling and cutting the dough with the larger heart first and then again with the smaller heart in the centre.

Place the heart shape “frame” on the baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown.

Remove them from the oven and carefully transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Once completely cooled evenly spread the raspberry ham over the entire top of the solid heart-shaped cookie bottom. Place the cut-out heart on top and super duper gently press so that the top sticks to the jam. Be careful not to press too hard or you risk breaking the cookie though.

Now it is time to get crafty! Yup baking isn’t always just measuring cups and sugar!

Get out a piece of paper… any white paper will do. Trace an outline of the smaller heart cookie cutter. And using scissors cut the heart out.

Then roll a little piece of tape like you would when adding a bow to a gift and then tape it to the centre of the paper heart. I find the tape sticks better than regular paper vs wax or parchment.

Now take that little paper heart and place it lightly on top of the jam centre. This prevents the jam from being covered with powdered sugar when you go to dust the cookies and keeps the red centres red.

Add a little icing sugar to a small sieve and lightly shake it above the cookie to lightly dust the cookie. Remove the paper heart using the tape as a handle and Voila… the red centre has stayed powder-free.

It isn’t a must-do step but it does look nicer when the cookies have that nice jewelled red centre.

Now don’t get freaked out. I know what you are likely thinking… holy moly that sounds like a lot of work. And really it isn’t.

Just a lot of tiny steps but easy steps. And it is a great way to spend time in the kitchen with loved ones making not just cookies but making memories. Some of my best memories were made cooking and baking with friends and family.

Storing raspberry valentine sugar cookies

These cookies are best eaten fresh and not frozen. The jam I find gets a little weird and dried out when frozen so just eat and enjoy! To keep them fresh, store them in a tightly sealed container on the counter.

Avoid putting them in the fridge because it will cause the cookie to soften and lose their flaky crunch.

Other valentine’s Day treats

• Pretty In Pink Overnight Chia Pudding
• Cocoa Spritz Cookies
• Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Tart

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For the step-by-step version of this recipe, check out the How To Make Raspberry Jam Valentine Cookies.