The Best Eggless Sugar Cookies for Valentine’s Day! | Beet Dye

These sugar cookies are rich, flavorful, and egg-free. Use Beet Dye for the pink color or skip it and just enjoy the cookie! These are perfect cookies for Valentine’s Day!

They have a lovely flavor and a beautiful gentle pink color. Kid safe and delicious, they’re sure to be a hit!

I’d like to set the record straight and say that I have nothing against regular food dye. I use it all the time and I don’t have any beef with it.

I just happen to be stuck with some beets and I noticed they’re incredibly pigmented!

In fact, it looked like a literal bloody mess all over my hands and the counter when I dug into using them up.

I figured they must good for dyeing things and I was right.

And then I did a small amount of research and my idea was not a new one.

Not that I was super surprised but isn’t it interesting to discover something that a ton of other people already know but it feels like a new idea to you?

When I was around 8 years old, I had the idea to make a baby doll that you could fill with warm water so it would be warm and heavy like a real baby.

And then a week later I saw an informercial selling that exact thing.

Weird and disappointing for a little kid.

I thought I was gonna make a ton of money off of that idea.

Watch the video!

Why Make These Beet Dye Cookies Eggless and Edible?

There are 4 reasons why I chose to make these eggless.

1. Eggs are getting pretty expensive lately.
2. My kids like to eat the raw dough while we play with it and cut the shapes out so this makes it safe for them.
3. My husband used to have a problem digesting eggs so I got used to taking them out or replacing them in recipes.
4. I like to eat cookie dough more than I like eating cookies. I’m sure it’s a learned habit.

Does Beet Dye Effect the Flavor?

In my limited experience, it did not effect the flavor of the cookies at all.

I’ve made these cookies with and without the dye and I didn’t notice a flavor difference.

The dye gives it a lovely color but I have noticed that it isn’t as vibrant when I used the dye after it had been sitting in the fridge for a week. After I baked that batch of cookies, they were closer to a pinkish tan than a true pink.

Let’s Make Our Beet Dye!

There are two methods for making beet dye.

Boiling or grating.

For the boiling method, I peeled the skin off first and then chopped the beet into large even sized chunks.

Other people say you can leave the skin on and it’ll peel off easily when it’s cooked.

I put one large, chopped beat in a medium pot with just enough water to cover the pieces – about 2 cups of water.

Then, I boiled it over medium high heat until I could easily stick a fork in it.

I separated the chunks from the water in the pot.

The red dye water went into a mason jar to be stored in the fridge. It was only about 4 tablespoons.

I ate the boiled beet chunks with salt and pepper. They were delicious! Boiled beet tastes like a cross between carrots and potatoes.

For the grating method, I just rinsed and grated half of a large beet using the smaller side of the grater.

Then I hand squeezed all the juice out of it through cheesecloth.

I only used half of a beet and I got twice as much beet dye to use.

It’s messier but you get more.

Don’t throw away the leftover squeezed beet pulp. You can treat it like grated carrot and throw it in a salad, coleslaw, or cook it in a soup.

Is there a color difference between the two methods?

The boiled dye was a little more red and the grated dye was a little more pink. I don’t think there was a visible difference in the baked cookies though.

How to Make Cookie Dough Edible

This recipe is delicious baked or unbaked.

I love to freeze some cookie dough balls and dip them in chocolate for a delicious treat!

However, there are two things to consider when making cookie dough edible.

Flour and eggs.

They are both raw ingredients and can contain harmful bacteria like E coli or salmonella.

Luckily, there are easy ways to make them safe.

For the four, spread it in a shallow pan and bake for 3 minutes at 350 degrees, stir, then bake for 2 more minutes.

You can use the heat treated flour any way you want. It doesn’t effect the taste or how it bakes up.

For the eggs, you can go the route of using pasteurized eggs or skip them completely.

For cookie dough, I usually just try to replace the volume and moisture with something like yogurt, mashed bananas, applesauce, sour cream, or even just milk.

It doesn’t often bake up the same way but if the aim is to eat it raw, you don’t really have to worry about that.

We’re gonna use sour cream for this recipe because I like how it tastes.

This gives the cookie a richer flavor and a good texture.

Also, the aim for the baked cookies is to have them keep their shape. These cookies do not spread.

Also, the higher amount of salt gives a more intense flavor than other sugar cookie recipes.

Let’s Make Beet Dye Eggless Cookies

Cream together 1 cup of butter (two sticks) and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy.

Add 2 tablespoons of sour cream, 1 tablespoon of you beet juice, and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract and mix.

Stop mixing and add all the dry ingredients at the same time. -3 cups flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon baking powder.

The aim is to mix the dough a bunch before you add the flour and then to mix it as little as possible after you add the flour.

This is a good practice for cookies, cake, brownies, anything where you don’t want it to be stretchy.

Over-mixing once you add the flour will give you gummy cookies with an unpleasant texture.

Once the dough is mixed, it should be the texture of playdough.

How to Roll Out Sugar Cookie Dough

I like this method because it isn’t messy, I don’t waste more flour by unnecessarily adding more to the dough and counter and all cookies come out the same.

First, grab two long things that are the same thickness and are how thick you want you r cookies to be.

It could be two knives, two sticks, two chunky rulers, two chunks of wood.

I grabbed leftover siding from a dollhouse I was working on years ago.

They weren’t quite as think as I wanted so I stuck two together for each side. This makes then about 3/8 of an inch thick. I really like thick sugar cookies.

Then I wrapped them with plastic wrap to make them food safe.

Put your sticks/spacers on you table so that they’re a little closer than the length of your rolling pin. You want you rolling pin to be able to roll across them like train tracks – with the dough in the middle.

Then place parchment paper on top.

Now put down a chunk of dough.

Then another piece of parchment paper on top of the dough.

This way the dough is completely covered with parchment paper. Your sticks won’t get dirty and your rolling pin won’t get dirty.

Now you can start rolling out the dough but make sure the rolling pin is always on top of the wood spacers as you roll.

Pick out some thick cookie cutters and cut out you cookies.

The heart shaped plunger cookie cutter was from a set I picked up at Walmart a couple of years ago in the Valentines Day section. I couldn’t find the exact set but THIS SET is pretty similar.

I also like using THESE thick cookie cutters because it’s a set and they’re double sided.

Place the cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 9-10 minutes.

They should be lightly browned on the underside.

Let them cool and then dip in chocolate.

I like Dulci Frutta Chocolate Melting Wafers. You can usually find them in the produce sections around Valentine’s Day. Or you can find them HERE at Amazon.

They have a unique and delicious chocolate flavor. They’re easy to use and the chocolate sets up really nicely but melts in your mouth without a waxy texture.

Just open the container, take off the lid and plastic, then microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and microwave for 30 more seconds and stir.

Dip the cookies and place them on parchment paper to set.

I tried just setting them on a plate and they were glued on there. Make sure you use the parchment paper.

Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Beet Dye Cookie Dough Balls

Watch the Cookie Dough short!

Heat treat 3 cups of flour and let cool while you mix the other ingredients.

Follow the same process for making the dough.

You can either shape the dough into balls, cut into squares, or press the dough into molds.

It’s probably best if you do small shapes.

Place everything in the freezer to harden.

I used some Wilton chocolate molds and they worked really well!

When the dough is nice and solid, melt the chocolate just like before and dip the dough bites.

Then place on parchment paper to set.

Enjoy!

You might also like this post about Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookie Dough Bites.

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