Iced shortbread hearts

Makes about 12

For the shortbread hearts, you will need:

● 150g plain flour, plus a little extra for flouring the worktop and dusting the dough

● 50g caster sugar

● 100g soft butter

For the icing, you will need:

● 150g sifted icing sugar

● 1-2 tablespoons of hot water

● A few drops of food colouring gel or liquid

For the iced writing, you will need:

● 75g sifted icing sugar

● A few drops of water

1

Preheat the oven to 180C, 350F, Gas 4.

2 Put caster the sugar plain in flour a mixing and the bowl, rub in the soft butter and bring the whole mixture together to form a stiff dough. If you wish, you can make the dough in a food processor; put all the ingredients in the bowl together and blend until a dough is formed.

3 Place the dough on a floured worktop and dust some flour on top, then roll it to a thickness of4mm-5mm. Regularly slide a palette knife or a fish slice under the dough to prevent it from sticking to the worktop.

4 Cut the dough into heart shapes, then carefully transfer them to a baking tray and cook in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until they are a pale golden colour.

5 Take the cooked biscuits out of the oven and carefully transfer them to a wire rack to cool. I lift them off using a palette knife or a metal fish slice.

6 While the shortbread hearts are cooling, make the icing.

Put the sifted icing sugar in a mixing bowl and add in just enough water to make icing of the following consistency: when you lift the spoon out of the icing and let whatever is in the spoon drip back into the bowl, it should leave a clear trail. Then add in a few drops of food colouring gel or liquid, whichever you are using, and mix well.

7 Next, using a tiny piping bag, or a small plastic bag with a nick cut out of one corner, pipe icing all around the outline of the hearts, see photo, below left. Leave the biscuits for about 10 minutes to allow the icing to set. This makes it really easy to ice the hearts very neatly without the icing dripping over the sides. 8 Squeeze any remaining icing from the piping bag or plastic bag back into the icing bowl, and add a few more drops of water to the icing so that it’s a bit thinner than the piped icing.

9 Spread this icing over the top of the hearts so that it is contained within the iced outline you’ve made. 10 If you prefer, leave out the stage of piping along the outline of the biscuits and instead use a kinife to spread all of the icing over the top of the biscuits.

11 Once the hearts, you’ve make iced another the top of small amount of icing for the iced writing, white this time. Mix together the 75g of sifted icing sugar with a few drops of water — you want icing the same consistency as the outline icing you made earlier. You can use this icing to write messages in the hearts, using the small piping bag or a plastic bag with the corner nicked out.

12 Set the biscuits aside again to set, then serve. 13 These iced shortbread hearts will keep in an airtight container for up to four days. ●