Cook the raspberries in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently until the raspberries are broken down into a sauce. Lay a double layer of cheese cloth inside a fine mesh strainer and pour the raspberry sauce through it to remove the seeds. To get as much juice extracted as possible, I gather up the ends of the cheese cloth and then press on the gathered sauce with a wooden spoon. This will help to squeeze out the maximum amount of juice. Pour the raspberry juice back into the pot. Discard the cheese cloth with seeds. Simmer the juice over medium low heat until it reduces to just a 1/4 cup. It will be a very rich red and concentrated sauce. Set aside to cool completely.

Heat oven to 350°.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until the mixture is a bit fluffy. Add in the flour and mix until incorporated. Add the cooled 1/4 cup of raspberry sauce and mix until dough is evenly colored.

Dust rolling pin lightly with flour, and roll dough 1/4″ thick on a lightly floured surface. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter (mine measured 2” wide by 1-1/2” tall), cut heart shapes out of the dough. Try to place your cuts as close together as possible so you won’t need to re-roll your dough as much. Place heart cookies 1/2” apart on ungreased cookie sheet (they don’t spread much at all when baking). I used a non-stick baking mat on the cookie sheet and it worked great. Sprinkle with course sugar to your liking. The cookies overall are not very sweet, so I sprinkle them fairly generously. Bake 13 to 15 minutes, or until set and edges start to brown very slightly. Adjust baking time for cookies of different thickness and/or cookie cutter size. Remove to rack to cool.

Repeat the very same process of reducing the raspberries as you did for the shortbread hearts. You want to end up with the same 1/4 cup of reduced raspberry sauce in the end, completely cooled.

Blend cream cheese and marshmallow cream with a hand mixer until fully combined. Add the 1/4 cup of raspberry sauce and mix until the dip is evenly colored.

Chill until ready to eat. Serve dip with raspberry shortbread hearts for dipping. Fresh fruit also works great for this dip.