In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until creamy.
Add butter and vanilla extract and mix until all ingredients are well incorporated with one another.
In a small bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Slowly add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix until cookie dough forms.
Wrap cookie dough with plastic and chill in the refrigerator for at least one hour.
Remove cookie dough from refrigerator and dust a smooth, clean surface with flour.
Cover rolling pin with flour and roll out the cookie dough so that it’s about ¼ of an inch thick.
Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter (about 2 ½ inches at its widest), cut out 15-18 heart-shaped cookies. Place each one gently on the lined baking sheet.
Unwrap candies and place them in a zip-up sandwich bag. Use a heavy item (marble rolling pin, meat mallet, etc.) to break them up into small pieces.
Using a miniature heart-shaped cookie cutter (about 1 inch in size), but out a heart-shaped hole in the middle of each cookie.
Fill up the heart-shaped cavity with crushed candy.
Place the pan of cookies back into the refrigerator and allow to chill for another 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake cookies for 12 to 14 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on a wire rack before serving.