Hello my fellow foodies and welcome to another one of my recipes!
This month I thought I might share with you a recipe for Valentine day biscuits. I like to think of these as the romantic “Jammie Dodger” of the biscuit world. These are very easy to make, and with it being half term you could even get the kids involved with making a batch, although attention should be paid when it comes to handling the cooked biscuits as the jam is piping hot!
Valentine day Biscuits
225g plain flour
180g butter at room temperature
85g caster Sugar
1 egg from happy and healthy free running hens
5 drops of vanilla essence
Approximately 3 tbsp of strawberry or mixed fruit Jam
Icing sugar to dust before serving.
So, let’s begin by rubbing in the butter and the flour together until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs in texture, then stir in the sugar. Next, add the egg and the vanilla and work until the mixture comes together to form a dough like consistency. All the above can be done in a food processor just take care not to over mix as the dough will become too soft to handle and the finished biscuits will be tough in texture rather than light and crumbly. At this stage I like to pop the dough into the fridge to firm up a little for 30 minutes of so.
When you are ready, pop on the oven to 160°C and prepare to roll out and cut the biscuits. As this is a very “short” mix I find that minimum handling is the key to the successful shaping of these biscuits- so a nice cold dough, cutting and placing straight onto the baking sheet and one final tip-I roll the dough between 2 layers of grease proof paper as this prevents sticking and the excessive use of flour.
Cut out even numbers of heart, place half of them into the baking sheet, and then gently spread a thin layer of jam on top of each biscuit, (don’t be too generous you are just looking to “colour” the top.) Next, from the remaining half of the biscuits, cut away a small heart shape and gently place onto the jam topped other half. You may choose to pop an extra drop of jam into the “cut away” hole but don’t go too mad as jam bubbles up as it cooks and will ruin the neat look of your biscuits.
Bake in the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes until they are cooked but still have their pale colour. Leave to cool before removing from the baking sheet and lightly dust with icing sugar before you serve.
Until next time my fellow foodies…
