Hello lovelies! Have you had a good week? Have you been inspired by Lu’s gorgeous cross stitch bunting to make something pretty? I have, but decided to go for something edible! We both roll our eyes slightly at Valentine’s Day (sorry) and feel we'd rather show love all year round. I do however get a bit caught up in all the pink and red prettiness, and I do love hearts!
This is my favourite cookie book. I have had it for years and think it's a wonderful selection of most of the cookies you would want to bake. There are recipes for shortbread, digestive biscuits, gingerbread, fig rolls, flapjacks as well as THE best squishy chocolate chip cookie.I asked the author, Kate Shirazi if I could share one of the recipes with you, and she said yes! Kate owns this gorgeous shop in Devon, and you can buy the book here.
This is our go to recipe for iced biscuits, and in the book it is the base for many other lovely treats.
Basic Butter Biscuit
(reproduced with permission)
What you need is
250g/9oz softened butter
140g/5oz icing sugar, sifted
1tsp vanilla extract
1 large free range egg yolk
375g/13oz plain flour plus extra for dusting
What you do is
Beat the butter and the sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy
Add the vanilla and egg yolk and mix well
Sift in the flour and work it into a smooth ball
Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for an hour, or freeze till needed. I have also rolled it into a log and just cut slices off.
When you're ready to bake your biscuits, let the dough come to room temperature. Roll out to 3mm and use cutters to make your shapes.
Put your cookies onto a lined baking sheet. Bake at 190C/375F for 10-12 minutes until pale golden brown.
Cool on a wire rack.
Icing
Tate and Lyles Royal Icing Sugar (this makes a harder, quicker drying icing than plain icing sugar.....
Food colouring, I use these
Decide how many colours you want and split the sifted icing sugar into that many bowls. Add water sparingly (it’s easy to add too much) until the consistency is like softly whipped double cream. It should still be a bit runny but able to hold its shape. Add your colours. I use empty sauce bottles that I bought from here.
For your main colour, outline the edge of the biscuit and then ‘flood’ the middle with the same colour (see video below).The icing will smooth itself but you can help it along with a cocktail stick. Now you can let your creativity run wild…...do stripes, blobs of a contrast colour swirled with a cocktail stick, or polka dots.
If you run a stick through the dots immediately you get hearts like in the video below......
Leave overnight to harden, and if you need to stack them up I would wait 2 days so you don't spoil your beautiful work!
Ok my darlings, we love you loads and are so happy you are reading our blog!!
Jenny xxxxx
What beautiful cookies - almost too pretty to eat! I've never tried making Royal Icing, but always love the way it looks. Your designs are gorgeous.
I'm afraid I'm a scoffer when it comes to Valentine's Day, too. I would say maybe it's just a day for young lovers, but even in my youth I thought it was an overly commercialized day. That doesn't stop me from drooling over your heart cookies, though! If only I still ate deliciousness like that....
Posted by: Kelly | Friday, 10 February 2017 at 05:04 PM
Well, Im glad we re not the only ones, Kelly! Thank you as always for your lovely comments! Jenny xxx
Posted by: Two Crafty Brownies | Friday, 10 February 2017 at 09:17 PM
Just catching up, as we went out for dinner on Friday, and I don't often read blogs over the weekend! I deny that I was licking the screen and dribbling on the keyboard at the sight of that the heart-shaped deliciousness!!
Posted by: Anne Donald | Monday, 13 February 2017 at 07:09 PM
Hi Anne, oh that made me giggle! Thank you so much, that is very kind! Jenny xxx
Posted by: Two Crafty Brownies | Monday, 13 February 2017 at 10:26 PM