Valentine’s heart biscuits

Show them you care this Valentine’s Day with a batch of homemade Valentine’s heart biscuits. Short and sweet and filled with glossy red jam, these biscuits are sure to capture their heart.

Ingredients

• 160g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 100g softened butter, cubed
• 60g ground almonds
• 100g golden caster sugar
• Grated lemon zest
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• ½ tbsp icing sugar
• 4 tbsp strawberry jam

To make the biscuits look like the ones in the picture, you’ll need a crinkle-edged cookie cutter and a small heart-shaped one – but improvise with what you have at home.

Method

1. Mix the flour, ground almonds,1 tsp cinnamon and zest your lemon straight into a large bowl and combine with the butter using your fingertips until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the caster sugar and egg and mix with a cutlery knife until the dough comes together in large clumps. Using your hands, knead the dough in the bowl until it forms a tight, compact disc. Chill for 15 minutes.
2. Roll the dough out on a dusted work surface to 5mm thickness. Stamp out 20 x 7cm rounds using a crinkle-edged cookie cutter and place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Use a small round heart-shaped cutter to stamp the centres of half the biscuits. Re-roll the off-cuts and cut out as many more biscuits as you can (you need to end up with an even number). Chill all the biscuits in the freezer for 20 mins or the fridge for 30 mins until firm.
3. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until lightly golden and sandy to the touch. Leave to cool for 5 mins on the tray, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Mix the icing sugar with the rest of the cinnamon and dust this over the cut-out biscuits. Spoon the jam over the whole biscuits and sandwich these with the icing-sugar-dusted hearts. 

These biscuits are best eaten within three days but will keep in an airtight container for up to six.