How about sharing a little love with these sweet Stained Glass Heart Cookies.
Fun to make & perfect to share!
To make the cookies you'll need:
8oz plain flour
4oz butter/margarine
4oz caster sugar
12 red boiled sweets
Icing pens
2 heart shape cooking cutters (large & small)
Method:
1. Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the butter & rub the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add the sugar & mix until a soft dough consistency is formed. Transfer the dough to a food bag & leave in the fridge for 1 hour.
3. To prepare the middle of the cookie, place the unwrapped boiled sweets into a food bag & crush the sweets with a rolling pin. To prevent the bag from splitting fold it over several times.
3. Roll out the chilled dough onto a floured surface & cut the hearts out with the cookie cutters, keeping the smaller heart cut-outs for later. Transfer all the cookies to the baking tray. (We wrapped our baking tray in foil & greased with a little butter to prevent the sweets from sticking to the base.)
4. Once all the hearts are on the baking tray it's time to add the sweets. Sprinkle the crushed sweets into the centre cut-out, taking care not to spill too many onto the cookie. If you wish to make hanging cookies, just add a hole to the top of the cookie before you add the crushed sweets, & add ribbon once cooked.
5. Bake for 10-15mins at 180˚C/350˚F until the cookies are golden & the sweets have melted. Remove from the oven & leave to cool in the baking tray.
6. Once the sweets have set in the centre of the cookies, carefully remove them from the tray & leave to cool on a wire rack.
Check out the gorgeous stained glass effect when the light shines through.
7. Once the cookies are cool, place the smaller hearts back into the centre again. These prevent the colourful centre being covered with icing in the next step, & allow you to decorate the mini biscuits at the same time as the larger ones! Decorate with icing pens, sprinkles, or anything that you think your valentine would like!
8. When the decorations are complete, the mini hearts can be removed & the icing left to set.
9. We shared some of these with friends & neighbours but kept a couple back as a treat for tea.
Great for exploring maths & science... & they taste rather yummy too!