Sift the cake flour together with the cocoa powder. Sift powdered sugar separately.

Soften butter in the microwave or leave at room temperature. Whip the butter well until creamy in texture.

If the butter ends up melting completely in the microwave, then start over and put it back in the refrigerator.

Add sifted powdered sugar to the whipped butter. Whip together until the mixture is creamy white. Regular sugar will not produce as crisp a cookie as the powdered sugar.

Add the sifted cake flour and cocoa powder in 3 batches to the whipped butter. Mix briskly as if cutting through the dough, taking care not to knead too much.

Wrap dough into a ball and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Afterwards, the dough will be rolled out so use a large piece of plastic wrap.

While the dough is in the refrigerator, make[Handy Chocolate Cream] (Ganache) Just in case, I have listed simple directions for the ganache below.

https://cookpad.wasmer.app/us/recipes/156197-ganache-handy-chocolate-cream

Heat the heavy cream and mizuame in a sauce pan on low heat. Turn off the heat as soon as it starts to boil. You may add one tablespoon of rum, if you prefer.

Break the chocolate up into smaller pieces and add to the mixture from Step 8.

Mix the ingredients from Step 9 very well until all the chocolate has melted and become creamy. Let sit to cool.

While the chocolate cream is still warm, put it in a pastry bag with an approximately 3 mm attached nozzle. Alternatively, you may use a plastic bag with the tip of the corner snipped off.

Roast the walnuts in an oven preheated to 170°C. If you are using roasted walnuts then you may skip this step. Walnuts pictured here are twice the listed portion.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator. Unfold and spread the wrap. Place another large piece of plastic wrap over the dough.

Roll out the dough thinly using a rolling pin. Be careful not to crack the dough.

2 cookies will be sandwiched together so roll out the dough thinner than usual.

Place the dough in the refrigerator again for about 15 minutes. This will make it easier to cut out beautifully shaped cookies from the thin dough.

I used 2 different sized heart shapes for the cut-outs. If you do not have 2 different sizes, you can use a round shape instead of the large heart-shaped cutter.

Cut out the dough using the large heart-shape cutter and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Set aside half of the large heart-shaped cut-outs from Step 18. Cut smaller heart shapes out of these by placing the smaller heart-shape cutter in the middle of the large hearts.

If this is difficult to maneuver, work on top of the parchment paper placed on the baking tray. Carefully push the smaller heart-shaped cookie dough through from the back of the parchment paper using your fingers.

All 3 different heart shapes should be baked in an oven pre-heated to 180℃ for 15-20 minutes.

Leave the cookies to cool at room temperature. Be careful not to touch the cookies while they are still warm as they will be too soft to handle.

Pipe the chocolate ganache from Step 11 on the large heart cookie. You will place another cookie on top so keep that in mind and pipe the ganache towards the inner rim of the cookie.

Place the cookie with the middle portion cut out on top of the large heart-shaped cookie and press lightly.

Pipe the ganache into the middle portion of the cookie.

Fill the cookie with chopped roasted walnuts from Step 12 and chopped dried fruits and you are done.

[Caramelized cinnamon walnuts] are used as fillings here. This is delicious so give it a try.

https://cookpad.wasmer.app/us/recipes/144083-cinnamon-scented-caramelized-walnuts

The small heart-shaped cookies can be used to make gorgeous ganache cookies as well. Pipe the ganache and finely chopped roasted walnuts on one side.

Pipe additional ganache over the walnuts and place the second cookie over it. You will have a cute and delicious ganache cookie.

This cookie dough is extra crispy just like the vanilla cookies so they are fine stacked. The roasted walnuts make them even crispier.

I use this ganache for my homemade macarons and cookies as gifts. They do not fall apart even when they are dropped into a bag.

I have listed the steps in details so even a beginner will not fail but it is very easy to make and you can show off a little.

I perched these cookies on top of the muffins for my[For Valentine's Day Easy muffins with heart shaped cookies]. Please give this a try.

For Valentine's Day, I have uploaded the[Heart-shaped macarons]. Please give this a try as well.