Valentine's day:biscuits heart valentines

Here’s a nice idea for Valentine’s Day – make your loved one these heart-shaped biscuits. Filled with jam and decorated with chocolate, they’re a bit like extra special, home-made Jammy Dodgers.

You could even make your own gift box to present them in – full instructions below too

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Ingredients (makes 20)

• 225g unsalted butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 200g plain flour
• 100g ground almonds
• 150g strawberry jam
• 100g dark chocolate
• 100g white chocolate

Equipment

• Heart-shaped cookie cutters (two different sizes)
• Cling film
• Bowl or food processor
• Baking sheet
• Palette knife
• Wooden spoon
• Piping bag (optional)

Technique

1. In a bowl or food processor, mix the butter, sugar, flour and ground almonds until the mixture creates a dough.
2. Knead the dough into a large ball, then cover in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for at least five hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 140C.
4. Remove your dough from the fridge and knead it until softened. Roll out into a sheet to a thickness of 5mm.
5. Cut out an even number of biscuit shapes, using a medium heart-shaped cutter.
6. Using a smaller heart-shaped cutter, cut out the middle part of half the biscuit shapes. These will form the tops. Slide all the heart shapes onto a baking sheet using a palette knife and bake for 30 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown.
7. Remove the biscuits from the oven and cool.
8. Melt the dark chocolate, then using a piping bag or spoon, drizzle the chocolate on the biscuit tops in a criss-cross design. Let them set for five minutes and repeat with the white chocolate.
9. Spread a generous blob of jam onto the centre of the whole biscuits, then place the chocolate-drizzled biscuits on top and press together so that the jam peeks out through the heart.
10. If you’ve got time, you could make one of these nice little origami gift boxes to present them in.