Recipe: Biscuits for your Valentine

Recipe: Biscuits for your Valentine

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They are a simple, shortbread biscuit, but made prettier and sweeter by the addition of jammy hearts, perfect for the Jammy Dodger lover in your life. There is the bonus of the tiny heart-shaped cut-outs that you can eat fresh from the oven. No one will ever know!

Ingredients

150g cubes of very soft butter
70g icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 medium egg
250g plain flour
50g ground almonds
Raspberry seedless jam
Icing sugar and flour for dusting
A 6cm cookie cutter and a heart shaped cutter

Method

1. Put the butter, sugar and vanilla in a mixer and beat well for 5 minutes*
2. Add the egg and beat for another 2 minutes until light and creamy
3. Add the flour and almonds and mix through until just combined
4. Split the dough into 2 balls and dust with flour
5. Roll out between two sheets of baking paper then place in the fridge for 30 minutes
6. Take your cool dough and cut into circles with a cookie cutter
7. Cut hearts out of half of your circles, balling up and re-rolling any spare dough
8. Preheat the oven to 170ºC
9. Place your cookies on baking sheets on baking paper
10. Bake for around 10 minutes until just turning golden on the edges
11. Cook on a wire rack and dust with a little icing sugar
12. Spread the round cookies with a teaspoon of jam and place a heart cookie on top

*Tip My top tip for a frosty February: If your butter and sugar are not mixing smoothly, or if your egg won’t beat in nicely, aim a hairdryer at the outside of the mixer bowl to warm it slightly. (I had to do this as my metal mixing bowl was cold and chilled the butter and stopped it creaming properly) The mix will soften up and go light and creamy in no time. Don’t heat for too long though or you will get scrambled egg!