Start by creaming together the butter, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract and mix until emulsified.

Add the flour, cornstarch, and baking powder and mix just until combined and there are no clumps of flour or butter.

If you have a scale, weigh the dough. Mine weighed 650g. Divide the weight of your dough by three, and put one third of your dough back into the mixer. (I put 217g of dough back into the mixer.) Set aside the two thirds weight of dough.

Add a couple drops of pink or red gel food coloring to the dough in the mixer and mix on low until combined. You may need to gently knead the dough by hand or with a spatula to evenly distribute the color while not over mixing the dough and causing it to become tough.

Drop your now pink dough onto a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper. Lightly flour the top of the pink dough and cover with another sheet of parchment paper. Roll into a thick, even layer of dough, about 3/8″ or 1/2″ thickness. It really helps to have a guided rolling pin. Freeze the sheet of pink dough for five minutes.

Use a tiny heart cookie cutter to cut out several hearts from the dough. Re-roll the scraps and cut again until there is no dough left. If the dough is too sticky, freeze for five minutes before cutting hearts again.

(Don’t worry if your hearts get a bit misshapen. It’s going to happen because we are not chilling the dough. When we press them all together, they’ll be fine.)

Stack all of the hearts together, making sure to line them up properly. Use your fingers to gently press and smooth the sides of the heart “log” to shape them and adhere them together.

Roll a snake of plain dough and press it into the divot of the heart log. Continue adding flat pieces of plain dough all around the heart log until it is evenly covered.

Roll the log to smooth it. Place the log onto a piece of parchment paper the long way and wrap the paper around once to meet the parchment. Gently squeeze the dough. log from the center out to carefully stretch and lengthen it. Once it is about 10″-11″, roll it until it is smooth. The log will end up being about 12″. It is okay if your log is a bit thinner or thicker.

Wrap the log in parchment paper and then wrap it again in plastic wrap so it is secure. Refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight. You could also freeze it for up to three months.

Once the dough log has chilled, remove it from the wrapping and lightly brush it with an egg white. Roll the log in white nonpareil sprinkles to coat.

Evenly slice the log of dough in 1/2″ slices. (This may seem thick, but they spread in the oven, which thins them out significantly.)

Bake the cookies at 350 F for 9-11 minutes or until the top of the cookie is no longer shiny. Do not over bake or they will not be soft. If you like a crispy, crunchy cookie, slice them at 1/4″ and bake until they start to get golden brown at the bottom edge.

Cool the cookies on the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. This recipe will make about 20-24 cookies if you cut at 1/2″, depending on how long you roll your log.