Add the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until creamy.

Scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula and add the flour and salt to the mixing bowl. Mix slowly until the cookie dough comes together.

Separate about 1 ¾ cups of cookie dough into a separate bowl and set aside for later.

Add a few drops of pink or red food coloring to the remaining cookie dough and mix until the color is fully incorporated.

Form the dyed dough into a disk shape, wrap it with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out until it is ¼ inch thick.

Cut out cookies with a 2-inch, heart-shaped cookie cutter until all the pink dough is used up.

Stack the cookies on top of one another and compress them gently so they all stick together.

Roll small sections of the undyed dough between your hands and press the strips around all sides of the stacked hearts until no pink is showing.

Roll the dough log gently back and forth to smooth it out, wrap it in plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for a minimum of four hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit when ready to bake the cookies.

Remove the chilled cookie dough from the refrigerator and slice it into cookies that are about ⅓ inch thick.

Roll the edges of the cookies in the sugar sprinkles if desired. I did half of mine with sprinkles and half without.

Place 8 of them, evenly spaced, on a baking sheet and bake for 10-11 minutes, or until the edges are LIGHTLY golden brown.

Allow the cookies to rest on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Repeat until all the cookies are baked. Store any leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to three days.