Chocolate Covered Cookie Dough Hearts

This recipe post is sponsored by ALDI USA. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. Thank you for continuing to support the brands that help to make Beyond the Butter possible!

Brand new to the Beyond the Butter recipe box is this Chocolate Covered Cookie Dough Hearts recipe! These heart shaped treats combine homemade, edible chocolate chip cookie dough that's covered in a rich, semi-sweet melted dark chocolate and topped with sprinkles! They're easy to make, budget friendly and are the perfect Valentine's Day gift to make for your schmoo, your friends, neighbors or coworkers!

my love for ALDI

As someone that does a lot of recipe testing, having an ALDI store minutes from my house to pick up baking products is super nice!

Besides shopping at ALDI for baking products, I also really like their choice of organic produce and eggs, Moser Roth chocolate bars (that are individually wrapped inside - so nice!), hummus, cheese and sunflower seeds! Their products are always high-quality, and the prices affordable—you really can't beat that!

Another nice perk to shopping at ALDI—you use your own reusable grocery bags which is a refreshing change amongst the sea of plastic bags out there!

If you haven't shopped at ALDI before, I highly recommend trying them out!

what makes these the best chocolate covered cookie dough hearts?

• Homemade and from the heart - they make great Valentine's Day gifts for the people you care about. Showing someone that you made them a little something special can go a long way!
• The taste - this chocolate chip cookie dough recipe is edible (and also eggless!) with the perfect amount of mini chocolate chips. They taste really good straight from the freezer too!
• Simple and straightforward - the cookie dough recipe is simple to prepare, requires only a minimum of 30 minutes to an hour for chilling, and dipping them into the melted chocolate is easy and fun! Get your kids involved by enlisting them on sprinkle duty as you place the melted chocolate hearts on to the tray.
• The ingredients - most of the ingredients needed you will find right at your local ALDI store! Plus, they're all super affordable!

And probably the biggest reason they're the best?

It's CHOCOLATE!

ingredients needed to make chocolate covered cookie dough hearts

Like I said above, most of these ingredients needed will come right from your local ALDI! To get started, here's what you'll need!

chocolate chip cookie dough

• Countryside Creamery Unsalted Butter - make sure the butter is softened before starting.
• Simply Nature Organic Cane Sugar - this is a 1:1 cup ratio to white granulated sugar
• Simply Nature Organic Light Brown Sugar - I am absolutely in love with this product. The smell when you open the bag is A-MAZ-ING.
• Friendly Farms Milk - I used 1%, but feel free to use 2%, Whole, Fat Free. You can even try it with almond milk!
• Stonemill Vanilla Extract
• Salt
• Baker’s Corner All-Purpose Flour - you will need to heat treat the flour before adding it to the cookie dough (more on this below).
• Baker’s Corner Mini Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips - the perfect size morsel for these bite sized chocolate covered treats!

melted chocolate covering

• Baker’s Corner Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
• Vegetable Shortening, Coconut Oil, or Paraffin Wax - all three options will thin the chocolate making it easy for dipping the chocolate chip cookie dough hearts in. Paraffin wax will give it and keep a nice shine. It will also allow the chocolate covered cookie dough hearts to be out at room temperature without melting.
• Valentine’s Day themed sprinkles - for topping after dipping the hearts in the melted chocolate.

recommended baking tools

For this chocolate chip cookie dough recipe, you can use either your hand-held mixer or stand mixer that's fitted with a paddle attachment. Additional essential baking tools needed are:

• Wax Paper
• Rolling Pin
• Baking Sheets
• Spatula(s)
• Double Boiler or Large Microwave Safe Bowl - for melting the chocolate. I prefer using my double boiler, but have also used a large glass mixing bowl.
• Small Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter(s) - you can go a little bigger, but you'll yield fewer cookie dough hearts.

how to make homemade chocolate covered cookie dough hearts

step 1: heat treat the all-purpose flour

I know we've all sampled some raw cookie dough at least once, maybe several times, in our life (and hey, we're still here!). The FDA does warn us, however, that harmful strains of E. Coli can be found in raw flour, hence this first step. It takes 10 minutes in the oven with about 25 minutes of cooling time.

step 2: make the chocolate chip cookie dough

You'll cream the butter and sugars together first. Then you'll add the milk and vanilla extract. Then lastly adding the heat treated flour and salt. Once combined, the cookie dough mixture will be thick and slightly sticky. Make sure to use a spatula to fold in your mini chocolate chips.

step 3: roll out the cookie dough, then chill

To roll out the chocolate chip cookie dough, you can use parchment paper or plastic wrap, but I prefer to use wax paper. I find the cookie dough doesn't stick to it as much. I use it as layers when I'm freezing my Homemade Peppermint Patties as well. Placing a kitchen towel underneath the wax paper can help keep it from sliding around as you roll out the dough.

The recommended ½ inch thickness for the cookie dough works well when using the cookie cutters. This thickness handles well too when dipping them into the melted chocolate. Just something to keep in mind if you want to go either thinner or thicker with your cookie dough hearts!

After rolling the dough out, you'll chill it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. Cut out the hearts, then refreeze for 30 minutes to an hour. You can also freeze them overnight if you prefer!

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step 4: melt the chocolate

This step is done just like my chocolate covered peanut butter eggs, peanut butter Christmas trees, graham cracker Christmas trees, and coconut buttercream eggs! You can choose to use either paraffin wax, vegetable shortening, or coconut oil for thinning the chocolate.

step 5: dip the chocolate chip cookie dough hearts, then add the sprinkles!

Have a baking sheet lined with wax paper ready before you begin this step will be super helpful! You can use candy dipping tools or, my preference, good ol' fashioned forks from the utensil drawer! Have your Valentine's Day sprinkles ready to go by your baking sheet as well. If you're like me, you'll quickly get into the groove of dipping the chocolate chip cookie dough hearts, placing it onto the sheet, then adding the sprinkles. Repeat!

quick tips before getting started

• The 2 hour, 5 minute recommended prep time noted for this recipe includes prep time and chill times for cookie dough, melting the chocolate, and dipping the cookie dough hearts.
• Sometimes you forget to set the butter out to soften - not a problem! Just pop it in the microwave for 30 seconds at 40-50% power. That should do the trick!
• If you prefer to not use paraffin wax as a way to thin your chocolate, you can use either vegetable shortening or coconut oil. See the recipe notes for this alternative method of melting chocolate.
• The chocolate chip cookie dough recipe is edible using no eggs and the flour is heat treated.
• I recommend adding a little more flour then what's called for as some of it will stick to the parchment paper.
• If you would rather skip the step of heat treating the flour, you can buy some that has already gone through the process.

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give any of these fun and easy Valentine's Day treats a try!

• Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
• Super Soft Chocolate Cut-Out Sugar Cookies
• Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Chocolate Chips (can be made as cupcakes!)

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