Valentines Bake | Raspberry Jam Heart Biscuits

With Valentines Day coming quickly around the corner, what better time to break out your apron and get your bake on! Calories don't count at this time of year anyway.. right?! So I was scouring all of my cookbooks and the internet to find the perfect lovey-dovey bake for your guys and I think I've found it! (Even if I did have to go out and buy heart shaped cutters specifically for this.. I have owl shapes but no hearts... typical!) Anyway, I hope you enjoy this simple bake, I love making biscuits because you need hardly any ingredients.. and it is my boyfriend's favourite after all, so I thought I would put a smile on his face!

TIMINGS

PREP TIME: 20 minutes

COOK TIME: 8-10 minutes

CHILL TIME: 30 minutes

MAKES: 20 biscuits 

YOU WILL NEED:

425g plain flour

75g caster sugar 

2tsp vanilla extract

4 egg yolks

325g butter

Raspberry jam

Icing sugar (for dusting) 

For the buttercream:

50g butter

100g icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD:

Sift the flour into a large bowl, add in the sugar, vanilla, egg yolks and softened butter. Mix well until it forms a dough. Remove from the bowl and flatten on cling film until it's about 2cm thick and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.Then preheat the oven to 180°C. 

Remove the dough from the fridge and place onto a floured surface. Roll the dough out until it's about 5mm thick and use a large heart shaped cookie cutter to create shapes (make sure you have an even number of these!) 

Take half of these larger hearts and use a smaller heart shaped cookie cutter in the middle of each to create a heart shaped hole. 

Place all of the hearts onto a baking tray and bake for around 8-10 minutes, or until they are a pale golden colour. In the mean time, make the buttercream by mixing together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla.

Allow the biscuits to cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. When they are cool spread 1/2 tsp of jam onto the biscuit that is a whole heart. And then spread the buttercream onto the underside of the heart with whole in the center. Sandwich the two sides together and then dust with icing sugar.