Queen of Heart shaped biscuits

Tomorrow I have a double special occasion to bake for. It is my Granny's 80th Birthday, and she is in London for the weekend staying with my Aunt in Forest Hill. I 'm really looking forward to seeing her, in all honesty it's been about 18 months since we were last together as she doesn't come down to London very often.
In the afternoon, I am heading West for Alex and Matt's wedding (party) to celebrate their civil ceremony that took place on Wednesday.

We all know how much I love making heart shaped biscuits, so I thought I would experiment away from my usual "lavender shortbreads" and try a jammy dodger style instead.

These are actually surprisingly easy to make! But they do require a little time and patience. I found the recipe online and thought I would share it with you.


Heart-shaped jam biscuits

Ingredients

* 225g unsalted butter, at room temperature, diced
* 100g caster sugar
* 200g plain flour
* 100g ground almonds
* 150g seeded raspberry jam
* icing sugar, for dusting


Method
1. In a bowl or food processor, mix the butter, sugar, plain flour and ground almonds until the mixture forms a dough.

2. Knead the dough into a large ball, then cover in clingfilm and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 5 hours.

3. Preheat the oven to 140C/gas 1.

4. Remove the dough from the fridge and knead it until softened. Divide into three equal portions and roll each portion out into a sheet 5mm thick.

5. Using a heart-shaped cutter of 6cm, cut out an even number of biscuit shapes. Using a palette knife, carefully place half of the biscuits onto a greased baking sheet.

6. Using a smaller (preferably 2cm) cutter shape of your choice, punch out the middle portion of each of the remaining biscuit shapes. Carefully transfer these onto a baking sheet using a palette knife and bake both batches of biscuits for 30 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown.

7. Remove the biscuits from the oven and take them off the baking tray straight away and put onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

8. Spread a generous blob of jam onto the centre of the whole biscuits, then place the biscuits with the cut-outs on top and press together so that the jam peeks out through the heart.

9. Sieve a little icing sugar over the top.

(By Tana Ramsay - From Market Kitchen)

Delicious! My finished product is below:


All photos © me.