Made with Love

I mentioned earlier in the week that I’d share the recipe for these yummy Heart Shaped jammy-dodger-style biscuits with you. I guarantee they won’t last until Valentine’s Day!

Ingredients

125g caster sugar (you can use granulated too)
350g plain flour
125g self raising flour
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg (optional)
125g unsalted butter
125g golden syrup
1 egg

For the icing (I’ve done this for so long I appear to have lost the recipe so tend to do it by eye, hence the imprecise quantities):
1 large bar (150g) white chocolate, melted
75-100g sifted icing sugar
2-3 tsbp boiling  water

Method

Frankly I bung everything in the Magimix and blend the bejeepers out of it. Otherwise you could:

1. Rub butter into flour and sugar until it resembles sand.
2. Mix egg and syrup.
3. Make a well in the centre of your ‘sand’. Pour in the wet mixture and stir.

Once combined, knead dough a couple of times to bring together. Seperate into two halves, shape into circles. At this point, either wrap these circley lumps in cling film and refridgerate until 20 minutes before needed, when you should get them out and bring them to room temperature. Or you can use them immediately, in which case, make sure your oven is prewarming to 160 C.

Place your circle of dough on a piece of baking paper and cover with another piece, then roll out. The paper will stop the dough sticking to the rolling pin and surfaces. (You don’t really want to roll out with flour as it will spoil the flavour and texture of the dough and make it harder to reroll.) Readjust the top layer of paper  as needed, and roll until the dough is about 5 mm thick. Then place on a flat surface in the fridge whilst you roll out the other circle.

Place your second lot of dough in the fridge, exchanging for the first. Peel off the top layer of paper and put on your baking sheet. Place the dough, with the baking paper still under, on a surface and cut out heart shapes. You will need two hearts for each biscuit. From one of each pair of hearts, cut out a smaller heart from the middle. Seperate out your hearts and space well on your baking sheet.

NB: for teeny hearts, I brushed with water and sprinkled with coloured sugar before baking.

Bake for   12-15 mins or until golden, then remove from the oven. Leave on the sheet to cool for a few minutes before transferring to cooling rack. The heart cut outs will be more fragile than the solid hearts. Repeat with your other biscuits and leave them all to cool.

For the icing, melt the chocolate. In a seperate bowl, mix the icing sugar with the water. Combine the two and beat You may find you need a littl emore water to get a good consistency. If it starts drying whilst you are still assembling your biscuits, add a little more water. Spread the icing on the large hearts, then add a small dollop of jam before putting on the cut-out heart and squidgy (technical term) together. Repeat with the other pairs of hearts.You can spoon extra jam into the heart-shaped centre if needed.

For the smaller hearts, just spoon on some icing and place another heart opn top. The sugared side should face outwards on each side.

Serve and enjoy.

This post is part of the Notes at Home Friday Carnival. Take a look at the other entries this week.

Nova at Cherished by Me gives us her Cherry, Coconut and Marshmallow Traybake.
Heather at SAHMLovingIt gives us her Scrumptious Beetroot Seed Cake Recipe.
Jules at I Need Curtains for the Window in my Head posts her recipe for Almond Macaroons.
Helen at Cheeky Wipes gives us her recipe for Coffee Cake.
Gemma at HelloitsGemma’s Blog posts her (easiest) Banana Cake (ever).
Sian at Pumpkin and Piglet posts her Chocolate Digestive Biscuits.
Jax at Making It Up gives us her recipe for gingerbread.
Cass at The Diary of a Frugal Family posts her Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Clare at Seasider in the City gives us her Mars Bar Cake.
Bod for Tea shows us how she makes Iced Animal Biscuits.
Maggy at Red Ted Art has a guest post from Maison Cupcake’s Sarah showing us how to make Love Heart Cookies.
Rebecca at twobecomefour gives us her recipe for Beck’s Banana Bread.
Jenny at Gingerbread House gives us her Gingerbread cupcakes.
Tiddlyompompom shares the fun she has making cakes with her daughter in Have your cake and eat it.