Ingredients
Equipment
Method
HOW TO MAKE HEART COOKIES
- Preheat your oven to 190C / 170C Fan / 375F and line 2 baking trays with baking or parchment paper.
BEAT THE BUTTER AND SUGAR TOGETHER
- Measure out the sugar and butter. Chop the butter into small pieces and then put them in a large mixing bowl or free-standing mixer.
- Beat the butter and sugar together with the k paddle of your free-standing mixer, a hand held mixer or wooden spoons. Keep going for a few minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.
ADD THE FLOUR AND BAKING POWDER
- Measure the flour then add it to your mixing bowl. Measure out the baking powder. Make sure to level the top of the teaspoon with your finger.
- Mix it all in. It'll make quite a dry, crumbly mixture at this point.
ADD THE EGG AND VANILLA
- Crack the egg into a small bowl, then add it to your large mixing bowl. Mix it together until it comes together into a nice biscuit dough. If it's easier, tip out your mixture and use your hands to bring it together.
MAKE THE HEART COOKIES
- Divide your mixture into two to make it easier to roll out.
- Sprinkle a little flour down on your work surface and roll out the dough until it is about 5mm thick. Rotate it 90 degrees every few rolls so it doesn't stick.
- Using heart shaped cutters cut out the heart cookies and then put them on your prepared baking trays. We found using a small palette knife made lifting the cookies off the worktop a bit easier. Leave a little room between each cookie for them to spread slightly in the oven.
- When you can't cut out any more bring the scraps back together, re-roll it and cut out some more. Repeat that until you've used all the dough.
- Chill the cookies in the fridge for 15 minutes or so to stop them spreading too much in the oven.
BAKE THE HEART COOKIES
- Bake the cookies in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on them – they're ready when they've started to turn a nice golden brown colour at the edges.
- Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool on the baking trays for a few minutes before removing them from the trays and putting them on a wire rack to cool completely.
DECORATE THE COOKIES
- Measure the icing sugar out, then add a table spoon or two of hot water. Mix it together – if you need to add a little more water you can, just enough to make it runny enough to spread but not so runny that it will run off the edges of the cookies. If you find you've added too much water, simply add a little more icing sugar.
- If you're planning to make more than one colour of icing, divide what you've made into different bowls. Add a drop or two red or pink food colouring and mix it well.
- Either add the icing to a small piping bag or small freezer bags then cut a small hole in the corner. If you don't have piping bags or freezer bags or if you just find it easier, you can spread the icing on with the back of a tea spoon.
- Pipe the icing in to each cookie and add some sprinkles before the icing sets. We found it worked best when we piped around the edges of the cookie then added more icing into the middle.
- Leave the cookies to set on a wire rack.
Notes
If your butter is too hard ( we always forget to take it out of the fridge in time), pop it in the microwave for a few seconds before you add it (do it for long enough to soften but no so long that it starts to melt).
If you find your dough sticking too much, you can roll it out with a sheet of baking paper underneath it and/or between it and the rolling pin.