Treat your Valentine to really special treat this year and bake some Sweetheart Empire biscuits. This is the recipe we use at Abbey Cottage for our popular iced biscuits. You can make them at any time of year, but if you’ve got a heart-shaped biscuit cutter, then Valentine’s Day is definitely the time to bake them and share with your loved one.

Our recipe for Sweetheart Empire Biscuits

Ingredients:

12oz/300g plain flour

8oz/200g butter or marg

4oz/100g castor sugar

1 egg

To assemble and decorate:

Raspberry jam

Glace cherries

Icing sugar and water

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160ºC. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets.

Cream the butter and sugar together by hand, or using a food mixer. Then add the egg and the flour. A firm dough will be formed.

Roll out the dough onto a floured board to approx ½ cm deep, then cut an even number of matching biscuits. We use a heart shaped cutter for our Sweetheart Empires, but you can choose any shape! After cutting, gather up the odd bits of dough, and roll out again to get more shapes.

Place the shapes carefully onto the baking sheets and bake in the oven for 15-20 mins. Check the biscuits, and if they are browning, turn the oven down. You want them baked, but not browned!

Remove from the oven and place on a wire tray to cool.  Once cooled, assemble with a filling of raspberry jam between the biscuits, and top with icing and a chopped glacé cherry.

Serve with a pot of your favourite tea.