Swirled Heart Cookies
I don't do Valentines day, I rather show somebody I like them everyday instead of having a set day a year you have to be romantic. I can't think of anything worse then sitting in a restaurant on the 14th of February with every table decorated with a single red rose and heart shaped balloons. With all the other couples being forced to be romantic as well, I rather go out for a meal the day before or the day after. Hence Valentine's day being called fish&chips day in our house :)
For the last 8 years we had a fish&chips supper as that is the furthest away from a restaurant meal as we could think of 8 years ago, it's become a nice tradition ;) I do get some funny looks and 'oh poor thing' comments when we rock up for our take-a-way but that only makes it more fun.
This doesn't mean I don't like baking something special for the loved ones in my life though and mister handmade home and my friends will get some heart shaped cookies this Sunday. I've been playing around with my favourite cookie recipe and have come up with a crunchy sugar biscuit that goes great with a cup of tea. The pink swirl gives it something extra for Valentines, don't they look delicious?
To make the cookies, mix together the ingredient below until you have a firm dough that forms into a ball.
- 200 grams of butter
- 250 grams of sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste
- and 350 grams of self raising flour
Divide the dough in two and add a bit of pink food colouring to one half, give it a quick knead so the pink is mixed throughout
Rol the plane dough into a rectangle of roughly 30cm by 20cm. Do the same for the pink dough. Place the pink rectangle on top of the plane one and roll into a big sausage. Let the dough rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Slice the chilled dough in 1cm discs and use your rolling pin to flatten the discs slightly. Use a cookie cutter to cut a heart shape out of your dough. The leftover bits of though can be rolled out again for even more cookies. You will get a nice marbled effect in your cookies as the pink will mix in a bit more.
Bake in a pre-heated oven on 175C for 15minutes or until they start to brown. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack and enjoy giving them away!
Happy Valentines
xx Hester
