Crisp, flaky, shortbread cookies with the red hot flavour of cinnamon hearts.
I remember when I was a child and my mom brought home cinnamon heart candies for me. As soon as that sweet, cinnamon flavour hit my taste buds I was hooked. My mom, poor mom, had no idea what she just started. From that moment I think I begged her for more Cinnamon Hearts every day.
Cinnamon Hearts are like the LBD (little black dress) of Valentine’s Day, the egg nog to Christmas, the Easter Egg to Easter – well, you get the point.
I went to Bulk Barn over the weekend and treated myself to a bag of this classic candy. As I sat munching watching yet another Kardashian marathon on E Channel, (it’s on ALL THE TIME). I had a bit of a Eureka. Could I add these tasty little heart candies to cookies? Could it be done??? Yes it can and so I created these.
*One note on cinnamon extract, I wasn’t able to find any so I used LorAnn oils, which I picked at Bulk Barn along with the cinnamon hearts. These flavoured oils are typically more concentrated than extracts so you’ll want to use a little less. For this recipe I would recommend using ½ a teaspoon.
When you roll out the dough, the thickness totally depends on what you desire. Typically shortbread is roll out to 1/4 – 3/8 of an inch thickness. If you like your shortbread a little crispier, roll out your dough a bit thinner.
Cinnamon Heart Shortbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature or softened
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 ¼ cups flour
- 6 tablespoons crushed cinnamon heart candies
- *1 teaspoon cinnamon extract I used LorAnn Cinnamon oil, which you can find at Bulk Barn – see note above
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line baking sheet with silicone mat or parchment paper. Crush cinnamon heart candies in food processor until it resembles a find dust.
- In a stand mixer bowl, beat butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy. If you are mixing by hand you will need to beat quite vigorously. Add the salt, flour, and crushed candy, and continue beating until fully incorporated and the mixture has a sandy texture with some large clumps. Stir in the extracts until a smooth dough forms, about 30 seconds. DO NOT overmix. If the mixture seems dry, stir in some milk or cream until more moistened.
- Transfer dough to a work surface or cutting board lightly dusted with flour. Roll out to about 1/4 inch to 3/8 inch thickness. If you want more cookies, roll out thinner. Cut into shapes as desired (you can use fancy cookie cutters if you like but I just used a small circle).
- The bake time will depend on the size of your cookies. For small cookies bake 10-12 minutes. For large cookies, about 20 minutes. Keep a close eye on them as you don’t want them to brown.
- Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes the transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.