Valentine’s hidden heart biscuits
These hidden heart biscuits are the perfect treat for Valentine’s day. They’re surprisingly simple to bake, so easy enough for kids to enjoy.
Hidden heart biscuits are the perfect bake for kids to make for Valentine’s day. They might look like they’d be too difficult for kids to make, but they’re surprisingly easy. There are a few steps, with a bit of chilling time required between each step so you’ll need a bit of patience, but if you can stick with it, they’re worth the effort.
The biscuit dough in these is really plain but easy to make. The trick in these biscuits is in making the hearts separately, then adding the rest of the dough round the outside. Follow the steps below to find out exactly how we did it.
How can kids help to make hidden heart cookies?
These are a fun biscuits for kids to make. There are a few steps involved so your kids might not end up doing everything but none of the steps are difficult so they could do the whole thing if they choose to.
Your kids can help measure and mix everything together and make the dough. Once you’ve made the basic dough, you need to colour it which will give your kids the chance to get their hands messy (or do this step yourself if you want to limit mess!)
To make the centre hearts, your kids can roll and cut out the red biscuit dough. As you don’t need all the hearts to be the same thickness this is a great job for little kids you want to practice using a rolling pin.
What food colouring should I use?
To make sure the hearts come out a lovely vibrant colour, you need to use bake safe food colourings. I’ve used the liquid food colours you find in supermarkets in the past, and while they might look great as you’re making the biscuit dough, they tend to fade in the oven which can make the end result a bit disappointing.
The best colours to use are gels or pastes. I use either Wilton colours or Sugarflair pastes – you can find them on Amazon or your local craft store. While the inital outlay might seem a lot – these colours last a long time so are actually quite good value for money.
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Other Valentine’s day bakes for kids
If you like these hidden heart cookies, you’ll love some of our other heart themed bakes including:
Heart cookies
Jammy heart biscuits (Jammy dodgers)
Valentine’s crinkle cookies
Useful equipment
You might need the following baking tools/gadgets to make these heart shaped cookies
Digital scales
Mixing bowl
Measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Rolling pin
Heart shaped cutters
Baking tray
Wire rack
Cake storage
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Ingredients
300g (1 1/3 cups) plain/all-purpose flour
200g (3/4 cup) butter, softened
120g (1/2 cup) golden caster sugar (or caster sugar)
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
red food colour
How to make hidden heart biscuits
Rub the flour and butter together
Get your kids to measure the flour and butter and add it to a large mixing bowl. Start using a knife to cut the butter in and give it a good mix, then use your finger tips to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
Add the remaining ingredients
Measure the sugar and add it to your bowl. Add the vanilla extract (2 tsp). If your kids are very little, either do this bit for them or do it together where you hold the measuring spoon while they pour it out or vice versa.
Add the egg yolks to your bowl. This is normally a job I do myself – crack the egg and let the white fall into a bowl. You can pass the egg yolk from one half of the egg to the other until all the white is in the bowl and all you have left is the yolk.
Mix everything together until it comes together into a ball. We started with a wooden spoon, then went in with our hands to bring it all together. Keep working it until it stops crumbing apart.
Make the hearts.
The first step in making these hidden heart biscuits is to make the heart centre.
Take around a third of the dough and add some red food colouring to it. Knead it until the colour is fully mixed in. With the remaining dough, you can either keep it plain or add some light food colouring. We’ve done it both ways and both work so it’s up to you which look your prefer. If you’re keeping it plain, simply wrap it in clingfilm and set it aside. Or add the colour, kneed it in and then wrap it in cling film.
Sprinkle a little flour down on your work surface and get your kids to roll the red dough out. It can be quite thick and it doesn’t matter too much if it’s not completely even so this is a great job for little chefs.
Cut out hearts with a small heart shaped cutter (around 3-4cm across) and stack them up on top of each other, pressing them together gently. Once you’ve cut out all the hearts you can, bring the remaining dough back together and roll it out again. Repeat this until you’ve used all the red dough, then wrap it in cling film and pop it in the freezer for a few hours.
Form the hidden heart biscuits
Once the heart centres are hard, roll the plain dough out into three sausages then length of the heart column using your hands.
Add a plain biscuit sausage to each side of the heart column, patting it down until you cover the hearts entirely. Gently roll the dough into a round cylinder.
Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 2+ hours until it is hard.
Bake the Valentine’s hidden heart biscuits.
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Once your dough has hardened, using a sharp knife cut it into slices about 1 cm thick and place them on your baking trays with enough space between them for them to spread a little in the oven.
Bake in the oven for around 18-20 minutes, until they are just about turning a nice light golden colour.
Remove the Valentine’s hidden heart biscuits from the oven and leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes before putting on a wire rack to cool completely.
Serve and enjoy!
Valentine's hidden heart biscuits
Ingredients
Method
- Add the flour and butter to a large mixing bowl. Start using a knife to cut the butter in, then use your finger tips to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
- Add the sugar, vanilla extract & egg to your bowl.
- Mix everything together with your hands until it comes together into a ball.
- The first step in making these hidden heart biscuits is to make the heart centre.
- Take around a third of the dough and add some red food colouring to it. Knead it until the colour is fully mixed in. Wrap the remaining plain dough in cling film and set it aside for now.
- Sprinkle a little flour down on your work surface and roll the red dough out.
- Cut out hearts (around 3-4cm across) and stack them up on top of each other, pressing them together gently. Repeat this until you've used all the red dough, then wrap it in cling film and pop it in the freezer for a few hours.
- Once the heart centres are hard, roll the plain dough out into three sausages then length of the heart column using your hands. Add a plain biscuit sausage to each side of the heart column, patting it down until you cover the hearts entirely. Gently roll the dough into a round cylinder.
- Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 2+ hours.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F and line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
- Using a sharp knife cut the dough into slices about 1 cm thick and place them on your baking trays.
- Bake in the oven for around 18-20 minutes, until they are just about turning a nice light golden colour.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes before putting on a wire rack to cool completely.
You might also like:
If you liked these hidden heart biscuits, you’ll love our jammy heart cookies.
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