Monday 14 February 2011

Valentine's Day Biscuits

The biscuits aren't red, 
And the icing isn't blue,
But they are still sweet,
And you can bake them too :)

Though the biscuits can go soggy,
The icing can stick,
I made them fresh today,
So you better eat them quick!

Happy Valentine's Day!


Today, the world is...pretty much exactly the same, just a little bit more red and flowery :) Don't get me wrong, I love flowers (my name means 'heart rose' in Chinese, therefore I especially love roses), but I did come across some very good quotes/rant on the topic of giving flowers as I was writing this:

1) The flowers are affectionate pointless rant:

"Why do people give each other flowers? To celebrate various important occasions, they're killing living creatures? Why restrict it to plants? "Sweetheart, let's make up. Have this deceased squirrel."

2) The etiquette poll:

"Etiquette Poll: Is it appropriate to give baking soda instead of flowers when attending a cryogenic freezing? For those all too likely times a friend decides to be cryogenically frozen for 100 years, wouldn't baking soda be more useful than flowers?

It just seems you would want to do what you could to negate any potential odor issues.

Thanks."

To be honest, baking soda would actually be more useful to me than flowers. Though I can't say the same about squirrels, dead or alive.




This is the cup that I used as the cookie cutter. I bought it in China for 5 yuan (50p), and I love it. Can't say that the shape makes it easy to wash up though. I'm actually quite impressed that the cup has no typos on it, I remember getting photoshoot albums done in China, and having writing around the photos saying things like "to be in love with the felling'.



I adapted this recipe from The Great British cookbook, but I think I put in too much butter. In fact, the biscuits stuck to the chopping board and it was a miracle that they were still heart-ish shaped when they went into the oven.


I ended up with a tiny blob left, which I considered eating (mmm....cookie dough...), but then I tried to mould that into a heart shape. You can't really tell from the photo below, but I'm glad I had the biscuit cutter do the job for me.


I ate the cookie dough anyway.

It was the icing of the biscuits that took forevverrrrr. Oh, if only I could spend this long and look this concentrated when doing my maths example sheets. 

But to be fair, I just said 'maths example sheets'. You've probably already fallen asleep.


I made these biscuits for all of my friends for Valentine's day (so if you are reading this, check your pigeonhole!). I have one left, and if you are extra nice to me I may give it to you :) 


Or I may just eat it. Yum yum.


Lesson learned today: Some people may prefer deceased squirrels to flowers. I, however, do not fall into that category.


I made biscuits, so I'm wondering, what are you cooking (or what would you like to be cooked :p) for Valentine's day?


Recipe for ‘Petticoat tails’
Adapted from The Great British Book of Baking

Makes about 18, if you use a heart mug-turned-biscuit-cutter

Ingredients
200g   unsalted butter, very soft
75g   icing sugar
300g   plain flour
icing sugar, food colouring, and writing icing, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C

Sieve flour and icing sugar into a bowl. Rub in the butter which should have been cut into small pieces, till it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Knead to form a smooth ball.

Lightly sprinkle a work surface with icing sugar and roll mixture into a circle 20cm/8" diameter. Use biscuits cutters to cut into desired shape.

Place on a baking sheet, and bake in the preheated oven for about 18 to 20 minutes, until lightly golden and crisp all over. If necessary, rotate the trays halfway through the baking time so that the shortbreads cook evenly.

Ice with any kind of icing you want, but make it pretty J

Store in an airtight container.



14 comments:

  1. damn, you are one hardcore baker.

    yum.

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  2. Your icing skillz are defo better than mine :( Sorry to those that got my ugly cookies (although it seems like Xinmei gave me two of my ones... ;D) xx

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    Replies
    1. Hi Mary. Thought you might like this tip. Martha Stewart outlines her cookies with icing and let's set. Then she fills in the centers. Makes for more even edges on the cookies. I see you wrote this in 2011, and this is 2016 - hope you already know this, or someone else benefits. :-) Sylvieann

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  3. I hope you're friends know how much work you put in to these - very pretty :)

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  4. Gorgeous! I love the colours. What a good idea to use the mug as a cutter.

    Ps. You have such a pretty smile!

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  5. I wouldn't have known what I would have done without that mug :)

    And thank you, I hope that these biscuits make my friends smile too!

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  6. I don't know what's cuter, the poem or the cookies haha! You have a beautiful blog and I'm so glad to have found it. I'm looking forward to exploring your recipes and seeing more! Happy Valentine's Day! :) - Georgia

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  7. Very cute! I hope you had a very happy Valentines Day! :)

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  8. Your post is so cute...love the cookies, so nicely decorated...and the poem is so sweet...hope you had a great V Day :-)

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  9. love these cookies! And your post is really fun. This is my first time to your blog and I'm glad I found it - I love your writing style!

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  10. Thanks for the comments :) I hope you all had lovely days too filled with lots of chocolate and other nice things ;)

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  11. Hey am sooo happy to meet u in blogosphere and as i get to know a little more of u love the fact even more :-)
    love the roses in ur name :-)
    And babe ur really gooodd at typing , honestly are!
    I love the red and flowers too , and all year round!!!
    And i have and loveee heart shaped mugs too:-))))

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  12. Too cute for words! Thanks for sharing. Happy making!

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