Step 1

Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. Set aside.

Step 2

Place soft butter in a medium-size mixing bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula until nice and smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix together by hand for about 30 seconds until well blended.

Step 3

Add the flour and cornstarch. Stir until dry ingredients are mostly incorporated. The dough will be a little shaggy.

Step 4

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and gather into a ball. Knead 5-6 times until fairly smooth and all the small pieces are worked in. If the dough seems sticky, knead it again with a little more flour. Form into a ball again and flatten with your hand to form a flat disk.

Step 5

Turn the disk to coat both sides with flour. Roll out the dough to an approximate 1/4-inch thickness (see Café Tips above in the post). Keep work surface, dough and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour.

Step 6

With a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies and transfer to them to the prepared pans with a thin, metal spatula. Re-roll scraps as many times as needed to use up the dough.

Step 7

Place cutouts in the refrigerator, uncovered, for at least one hour or up to 24 hours.

Step 8

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350˚F. Bake for 10-14 minutes, or until just beginning to turn golden at the edges. Repeat with the second pan of cutouts. Cool on a wire rack before icing.

Step 9

Combine powdered sugar, 4 tablespoons half and half and flavored extract in a medium-size bowl. Mix until smooth. The glaze should be fairly thick, but pourable. Add a little more half and half if too thick. Add more powdered sugar if it’s too thin. (See picture above in the post.) Taste the glaze and add more extract, if a more intense flavor is desired.

Step 10

Transfer the glaze to a small shallow bowl (a little larger than your cookies). Add a drop of food color and stir well to combine. Add more food color if needed to achieve the desired color.

Step 11

Hold onto the edges of a cookie and dip the top surface into the glaze, being sure all of the surface touches the glaze. Pull cookie straight up out of the glaze and allow excess glaze to drip into the bowl for about 15-20 seconds. (You can gently shake the cookie back and forth and up and down to get it to drip a little faster.)

Step 12

Then quickly flip the cookie to the right side up and give it a gentle jiggle to allow the glaze to flow evenly over the surface. Sprinkle cookies on one side with colored nonpareils.

Step 13

Repeat with remaining cookies. Place cookies on a cooling rack and allow the glaze to dry for 20-30 minutes.