Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Just like cookie dough, but with even more chocolate!
Texture: The chocolate coating is crisp and snappy, the perfect contrast to the soft and slightly grainy cookie dough.
Ease: Super easy, just a little messy and hands-on.
Pros: Fun and festive treat! You could also use other cookie dough shapes to make these for any other holiday or occasion.
Cons: These are best served at a cool room temperature. So if it’s a hot or humid day, or if you wanted to serve these outside in the sun, they won’t hold up for long.
Would I make this again? Yes!
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Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and these chocolate-covered Cookie Dough Hearts would be the perfect homemade candy to make!
I think they’d be just adorable to bring to work for your colleagues.
Or make them with your kids to bring to their classroom. Or, my personal favorite would be these + a bottle of rose for GALentine’s Day!
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They’re super easy to make, you don’t even need to turn on your oven. Plus you can have fun with festive sprinkles – who doesn’t love that?
These cookie dough hearts are the perfect homemade dessert for any cookie dough lover. They’d even be a great treat for an anniversary!
Make sure to check out all my tips for this recipe in the box just below. If you try out these cookie dough hearts for Valentine’s Day, let me know in the comments below!
How to Make Chocolate-Covered Cookie Dough Hearts
How to Make RAW Cookie Dough Safe?
- This recipe contains no eggs, so you don’t have to worry about that.
- To make the raw flour safer, we need to kill bacteria. Treat the flour by baking it at 350°F for 10 minutes or microwaving in 30-second bursts until it reaches 165°F. Use an instant-read thermometer to guarantee it hits the temperature at which bacteria dies.
- Heating the flour in the oven also toasts it slightly, giving it a nutty caramelized flavor that works beautifully in this recipe.
What Type of Chocolate Do I Need for Cookie Dough Hearts?
I prefer to use semisweet baking chocolate for coating the Cookie Dough Hearts. Use a quality baking bar and chop it up for best results. Don’t use chocolate chips, as they won’t melt down as smoothly.
Why is There Coconut Oil in This Recipe?
- In this recipe, we use a small amount of virgin coconut oil in the melted chocolate to make the coating.
- This allows the chocolate to harden into a nice snappy shell without requiring tempering.
- The coconut taste is barely noticeable!
- If you don’t want to use coconut oil, you can also use the same amount of shortening.
- Whichever you decide to use, just note that the chocolate will begin to get melty if it’s left out in a warmer room, so store refrigerated after a day or if it’s warm in your house.
- You could also use candy melts instead, but I just think the flavor of real melted chocolate is SO much better.
- Alternatively, you can temper the chocolate. More on that just below.
How to Temper Chocolate (Optional)
The only way to make the hearts more “shelf stable” while still tasting delicious is by tempering the chocolate instead. Learn how to temper chocolate here.
Tools for Making Chocolate-Covered Cookie Dough Hearts
- An electric mixer
- Parchment paper
- Plastic wrap
- Baking sheet
- Chocolate dipping tools – Use these to neatly coat the hearts in chocolate – or alternatively, just use a regular fork. Just be sure to allow the excess chocolate to drip off before placing on the parchment paper.
- Heart-shaped cookie cutters – You can use any size of cookie cutters you like, but I generally prefer the smaller sizes to make them more like candy.
How to Store Cookie Dough Hearts
Store Cookie Dough Hearts in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. Once the chocolate is set, you can stack them between sheets of parchment paper to save space.
How to Make Ahead of Time
You can prepare the cookie dough, roll it out, cover and refrigerate it overnight. This might be a good idea if you want to cut out the heart shapes and dip into chocolate with little ones for a fun Valentine’s Day edible craft project!
More Valentine’s Day Desserts to try:
- Chocolate Truffles
- Valentine’s Day Cake
- Chocolate Lava Cakes
- Nutella Stuffed Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
- Chocolate Strawberry Mini Cheesecakes
Check out our entire collection of even more Valentine’s Day recipes HERE!
Cookie Dough Hearts
Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) lightly packed light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk (any kind)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 (190 grams) cups all-purpose flour, see notes
- 1/8 teaspoon fine salt
- 3/4 cup (128 grams) miniature chocolate chips
For the chocolate coating:
- 16 ounces (454 grams) semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil or shortening
- Decorative sprinkles, if desired
Instructions
Make the cookie dough:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium-high speed until very well combined and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add in the milk and vanilla. On low speed, gradually add the flour and salt. Stir in the miniature chocolate chips.
- Scoop the dough out onto a parchment paper-lined worked surface. Cover with a large sheet of plastic wrap and roll it out with a rolling pin until it reaches about 1/2-inch in thickness. Freeze for 15 minutes. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out pieces of cookie dough. Place on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and freeze until firm, at least 30 minutes.
Make the chocolate coating:
- In a heat-safe bowl, combine the semisweet chocolate and coconut oil. Microwave in 30-second bursts, stirring between bursts, until melted and smooth. Dip the firm and very cold cookie dough hearts into the chocolate, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl. Place on the prepared baking sheet. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Refrigerate until set.
Recipe Notes
This post was published in 2018 and has been updated with additional recipe tips and information. Photos by Lauren J. Photography.
great! made them gluten, dairy free and low carbish. about 12 carbs per piece. I got 12 from this recipe. making again no question.
I made this with tempered chocolate, and it is delicious. My significant other loves cookie dough ice cream, so I made these to surprise him for Valentine’s Day. I think they may become an annual February tradition.
So happy you loved this recipe!
I love these little hearts! The taste is really delicious. However, every time I make the (and I have tried about 10 different times at least) the dough does not stay together. It crumbles and falls apart when I try to use the cutout. It is like they are too dry. What am I doing wrong? It is SuPER frustrating! I end up throwing most if the dough in the garbage.
Please help I really would like to make these correctly. Thank you!
So sorry to hear of your issues, Tammy! Are you using a digital scale to measure your flour? Depending on your climate/location, it’s also possible that a bit more liquid (milk) may need to be added to your dough. Try adding a teaspoon at a time until you reach a better consistency. Please let me know how your next attempt goes, fingers crossed this fixes it!
My dough also turned out very crumbly (heated the flour according to the instructions). I added a total of 5 tbsp of milk in the end to get a nice consistency. Rolled the dough out between sheets of parchment without an issue.
The brown sugar that I used was very coarse, so it didn’t fully dissolve when beating the sugar together with the butter, but gave it a nice extra crunch! I used salted butter and skipped the extra salt, which works just fine. The dough tastes great, and even better after chilling. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Glad this recipe still turned out well for you! Did you use a digital scale to accurately measure your flour? Crumbly cookie dough is usually due to too much flour being added to the dough. Check out my article about how to measure flour here. Hope that helps!
These came out pretty perfect. I did not have an issue with the dough being too crumbly after heating the flour. They are incredibly rich, I would recommend keeping your pieces on the smaller size. I don’t have a heart shaped cookie cutter so I just hand cut a few hearts and did round cut outs after that. I would say to keep them no larger than about 1-2” in diameter. After the chocolate had set, let them get to room temp to eat. Very good recipe!
So glad you enjoyed!
The dough does not hold together like traditional cookie dough. Rolling the dough out with plastic wrap on top made it worse. I ended up flattening it out with my hands to try and get it to stay together. The dough was crumbly and didn’t stay cohesive, even after freezing. It cracked when cutting it with a cookie cutter. Next time, I’ll make the dough with more moisture. Also, I’ll just drizzle chocolate on top instead of coating; the chocolate coating was a bit too much, for me anyway. They tasted good though. I would advise you make the requirement to bake the flour to make it safe more prominent in the recipe. No one reads the 13 paragraphs between title and recipe; everyone jumps to the recipe, which means they miss the part where it’s important to make the flour safe to eat.
How many would these yield, approximately? Considering that I would also like to use a small-ish cookie cutter…
I want to make these for five people, so I’m wondering how many batches I ought to make!
The yield definitely depends on what size cookie cutter you use! I typically yield around 16 medium cookie dough hearts from one batch. I hope that helps!