If you are looking for a lovely cookie to bake for your loved ones this weekend, you can't get much nicer than Easy Jam Hearts. These lovely jam filled butter cookies are simple to make and quite delicious!
They are so easy to make that the children will want to get in on but business of helping you with them. Children do so love to help out with baking don't they! I sure wish I lived closer to my grandchildren . . .
You don't need to be rolling out or cutting out these cookies. They are pretty much faff free. You simply pinch off pieces of dough and roll it into 1 inch balls with your hands. These get placed onto the baking sheets, lightly smashing two together next to each other, and then you pinch them out into a heart shape, leaving two rounded bits at the top. Flatten them slightly with the palm of your hand and then use your thumb to make a heart shaped depression in each, which you fill with jam.
Take care not to overfill them or the jam will overflow the cookies when they are baking. A little bit goes a long way when you are cooking with jam. Also, if you are working with children, make sure they don't touch the baked cookies until they are cooled. Hot jam can easily little fingers and lips!
You bake these in a moderate oven for 10 to 12 minutes and then let them cool right on the baking sheet. Once they are completely cold you ice them with a lemon drizzle icing.
Do be sure to use fresh lemon juice in the icing. I have used lemon flavouring before, and it is just not the same. It lends an almost perfume-like taste to the icing, which I didn't care for. Fresh lemon juice is the only way to go.
Today I used Raspberry jam, because that is what I had in the refrigerator. Run a fork through your jam to loosen it up nicely. Seedless jam is best, but any jam will work really. I think the red jams look the nicest.
Lemon curd is also very nice in these, in which case you might like to add a pinch of ground ginger to the flour. Lemon and ginger are a marriage made in heaven!
These are just so, so, SO pretty!
Why not invite them to your next tea or children's party???
They look so fancy, and yet . . . they are not . . . fancy that is . . . just a simple butter cookie, hand shaped . . .
filled, baked and . . . drizzled, with love . . .
The child in me wishes so much that I could indulge . . . sigh . . .
Alas all the sins of my misspent youth are coming back to haunt me and all I can do is look and dream . . . never mind, the Toddster enjoys them, and that is what counts!
Yield: Makes approximately 24Author: Marie Rayner
Easy Jam Hearts
prep time: 15 minscook time: 12 minstotal time: 27 minsNo cookie cutter needed for these sweet jam filled heart shaped butter cookies. If you can roll dough into a ball, you can make these.ingredients:
250g butter (1 cup + 2 tsp)140g sugar (3/4 cup)2 tsp vanilla extract300g plain flour (2 cups + 2 1/2 TBS)1/4 tsp saltyour favorite red fruit jaminstructions:
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Line a couple of large baking sheets with baking paper. Set aside.Cream
the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Beat in the
sugar. Stir in the salt and flour to make a dough. Pinch off pieces of
the dough and roll into 1/2 inch balls.Squash two balls together on the
baking sheets, leaving rounded ends a the top and tapering bottoms to a
point. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Leave plenty of
space in between. Using your finger, make a heart shape indentation in
the center of each. Fill with some jam, making sure that you don't
over-fill it.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Leave to cool on baking sheets.
Whisk
together 130 g/1 cup of sifted icing sugar and enough lemon juice to make a drizzle
icing. Drizzle decoratively over the cookies and leave to set. Store
in an airtight container with wax paper in between the layers.Created using The Recipes Generator
Note, it is perfectly possible to divide the recipe in half if you wish. I did so today with perfect results. Happy weekend and Bon Appetit!
