Stuffed Conversation Heart Cookies

Instructions

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1. - Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. - Prepare sugar cookie dough following recipe instructions. Roll dough to 1/8 in. thickness.
3. - Cut six large hearts and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Use the smaller heart cookie cutter to cut a heart out of the center of two of the cookies, removing the inside heart from the baking sheet to add back with the unused cookie dough, leaving the heart outline with an open center for those two cookies on the baking sheet.
4. - Bake in the pre-heated oven for 6-8 minutes, or until the bottom edge just starts to brown.
5. - Remove cookies to a cooling rack and cool completely.
6. - Repeat with the remaining cookie dough two more times so you have a total of 12 solid hearts and six hearts with an open center (as each final Stuffed Conversation Heart Cookie will require two solid hearts and one heart with an open center).
7. - Once cookies have cooled completely, prepare the Royal Icing Mix according to instructions for a MEDIUM consistency (soft to medium peaks with a marshmallow fluff-like consistency).
8. - Spread a little bit of icing onto the bottom of a cookie with the open center and place it on top of one of the solid heart cookies. Fill the center opening with sprinkles. Spread more icing on top of the cookie with the open center, then attach another of the solid heart cookies on top. Repeat with the remaining cookies until you have six stuffed cookies.
9. - Divide the remaining icing into six portions, one of which should be a slightly larger portion, and another one that is a slightly smaller portion. Place a damp tea towel over the bowls to keep the icing from drying out. Use the Gel Food Coloring to tint each portion of icing, one color at a time (pastel pink in the larger portion, red for the smaller portion, and the other portions in pastel blue, pastel green, pastel yellow, and lavender by mixing 2 drops of pink and 1 drop of blue). Store the red icing to use later by placing it in a disposable icing bag with the bag's tip still intact, tying the bag so it is sealed airtight, and keeping at room temperature.
10. - Using some of the icing of each color, outline the top heart cookie using an icing bag fitted with a #4 Round Tip. Outline one cookie each with blue, green, yellow, and lavender, and two cookies with pink.
11. - Squeeze the rest of the icing back into their bowls, reserving the bags. Add a few drops of water at a time to the remaining icing and use a small spatula to stir the icing slowly in a figure 8 motion to create a THIN consistency for flooding (the consistency should be like school glue). Try not to stir too quickly, or you will end up with bubbles in the icing.
12. - Place the thinned icing back in the icing bag and flood the cookies to fill the outline you made. If you have bubbles in your icing, you can use a toothpick to pop them.
13. - Once all your cookies have been flooded, let them dry at least 8 to 10 hours (or overnight).
14. - Using the reserved red royal icing, fit the bag with a #2 Round Tip. Pipe conversation heart messages onto the cookies. You can customize your messages to be whatever you'd like! Here are a few ideas:
    1. LUV U
    2. BE MINE
    3. XOXO
    4. YES CHEF
    5. KISS ME
    6. TE AMO
15. - Once piped, let the cookies dry at room temperature, about 1 to 2 hours.