There’s a very famous bakery in my home town of Bakersfield known for their amazing cookies and donuts. To be completely honest, they might just be the best thing about the city. Every kid growing up there knows the distinct pleasure of seeing their teacher or a room parent walk into the classroom with one of their white bakery boxes with red lettering on the top and knowing that they are in for a treat. When I went away to college, the two things I most often asked my parents to send me were money (because obvs) and their cookies. The best time of year to visit the bakery is around Valentine’s day because it is the only time they sell their signature heart cookies. These things are so good, dense sugar cookies covered in bright red icing with the most amazing bite of cinnamon to them. I’m not usually one to make copycat recipes (unless they fall into my lap like the Better Than Starbucks Caramel Macchiato) but since these are only available seasonally and I am not always in Bakersfield, I decided I was going to figure these babies out.
And I did…mostly. The cookies here are even more delicious than I though possible. The base is dense but slightly crumbly, not crunchy, but not overly soft (you should have seen the keywords I put into google trying to describe the type of dough I was looking for). The icing is where the recipe differs a little. I’m almost 100% sure the original uses cinnamon extract because they have a spicier and more exaggerated cinnamon flavor than these, but I couldn’t easily find cinnamon extract at the stores around town and I hate posting recipes that require people to order ingredients they will only use once, so my icing is made with ground cinnamon. And you know what? I might even like this stuff more. I cannot recommend these cookies enough. Beyond being delicious, the dough is simple to make and the icing (after an overnight rest) dries hard, so they are perfect for gifting as valentines. I’m not saying that these are going to replace the originals in my life, because nothing ever will, but they are perfect substitutions for when you are living far away and your terrible, horrible, no-good parents won’t send you any because they just sent you a care package the week before, and they’re saying things like, “God, Tracy, no one needs this many cinnamon sugar cookies. We don’t care if you are sharing them. It’s an obsession and we worry about you…”
Looking for more of my favorite sweet treats? Try these Small-batch Chocolate Chip Cookies, Perfect Lemon Bars, and Small-batch Vanilla Cupcakes. Nutritional Information (30 cookies) Cookies adapted from: Karen’s Cookies Cinnamon icing adapted from: AllRecipes
