With Valentine’s day behind us, I can share the biscuits I made for my office bake sale. They were definitely a hit with my colleagues and they didn’t last a very long time! I based them on BBC Good Food’s “Love Bug Biscuits” recipe but went for a slightly different and more simple decoration. I’ve also made the recipe a bit clearer than in the original write up, hopefully making it a bit simpler to follow. You can make these biscuits any shape you want for a different occasion if you prefer – I think they are one of the best biscuits I’ve made. Crunchy, buttery and melt in the mouth.

Some of my previous office bakes: Spiced Apple Bundt Cake, Carrot Cupcakes, Apple and Blackberry Cake with Clotted Cream.

Valentine Biscuits

Valentine-Cookies

Makes 20 | Hands-On time: 30-40 mins | Cook 12 mins
A little effort | Vegetarian

Tip: You can buy a block of red coloured ready-to-roll icing, instead of colouring it yourself. Lakeland stock it.

You’ll need:

  • 175g plain flour;
  • 100g chilled butter, cubed;
  • 85g icing sugar plus extra for dusting;
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract;
  • 1 egg yolk.

To decorate

  • 500g ready-to-roll fondant icing (see tip);
  • red food colouring;
  • 2 tbsps icing sugar plus extra for dusting;
  • edible pink glitter.

You will also need

  • 8cm heart-shaped cutter
  • 6cm heart-shaped cutter

Put the flour, butter, sugar, vanilla and egg yolk in a food processor. Dribble in 1 tbsp water and blitz until the mixture comes together to form a dough. Add a little more water if you need to – a tsp at a time. Tip onto a work surface dusted with a little icing sugar and knead briefly to bring together, then wrap in cling film and chill for 20 mins.

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Dust your work surface and a rolling pin with a little icing sugar. Roll out the dough to the thickness of a £1 coin. Use your 8cm heart cutter to stamp out heart shapes – you’ll have to re-roll the trimmings to make 20 biscuits. If the dough starts to stick to the surface, just add a little more icing sugar to the surface. Put the hearts on 2 baking trays and bake for 12 mins, swapping the trays over halfway through, until pale golden and crisp. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

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To decorate. mix the icing sugar with a teaspoon of water and mix. You want a thick but slightly runny consistency so you can dribble a little more water if you need to. Set aside. Dye your lump of icing with enough red food colouring until you get the desired shade of red. Wrap in cling film until ready to roll. Dust your work surface and an icing rolling pin with a little icing sugar, this will stop the icing sticking to your surfaces. Roll out the red icing to 3mm thick and use your 6cm cutter to stamp out hearts. Carefully put a little of the runny icing in the middle of each biscuit, then stick the heart-shaped icing on top. Repeat until you’ve covered all biscuits. Finally, dust the cookies with a little edible pink glitter.

Adapted from BBC Good Food recipe, available online here.