Recipe: CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD LOVE HEART SANDWICHES

With Valentine's Day just around the corner it might be worth you brushing up on your baking skills and spoiling the one you love with a tasty treat. And tasty treats don't get much sweeter than these lovely little chocolate shortbread love heart sandwiches – sure and why not take one or three yourself while you're there! Happy Valentine's Day! x

 

Ingredients:

 

For the biscuits:

  • 150g unsalted butter
  • 65g caster sugar
  • 200g plain flour
  • 15g cocoa powder, sifted

For the fillings:

To make the biscuits:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, 160°C fan or Gas mark 4. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
  2. In a bowl beat together the butter and sugar until soft, creamy and light in colour.
  3. Divide the mixture between two bowls. Add 100g flour to one bowl along with the sifted cocoa and mix everything together into a firm chocolatey dough.
  4. Add the remaining flour to the remaining mixture and mix this together to form a firm dough.
  5. Turn each dough out, one at a time, onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth.
  6. Roll the first ball of dough out to the thickness of 1/2 cm. Using a 5cm wide heart-shaped pastry cutter, stamp out 12 heart shapes, re rolling as necessary.
  7. Repeat with the second ball of dough to make a further 12 heart shapes.
  8. Arrange the hearts onto your baking trays, spaced slightly apart and bake for 20 minutes or until the pale biscuits turn golden in colour. Leave to cool on the baking trays for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Keep the trays with the baking paper as you’ll need these again later.

To make the buttercream:

  1. Melt 40g of the chocolate in a microwave and and set to one side to cool for 10 minutes.
  2. Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
  3. Add the remaining icing sugar and vanilla extract and beat the mixture until creamy and smooth. Divide the mixture into two bowls.
  4. Add the cooled melted chocolate and the cocoa powder to one of the bowls and beat until well combined.

Assemble and decorate your sandwiches:

  1. Spread the vanilla buttercream onto 6 of the chocolate heart biscuits, and spread the chocolate buttercream onto 6 of the plain heart biscuits, making sure to spread the mixture all the way to the edges. Sandwich together with the remaining biscuits.
  2. Melt the remaining chocolate in a microwave and sprinkle some of your golden sprinkles or glitter into a shallow bowl or plate. Dip one half of each sandwiched biscuit into the chocolate, then dip into the golden sprinkles to coat, you can get creative here and leave some gold and some plain.

Lay each biscuit back onto the baking trays with the baking paper and leave for 20 minutes or until the chocolate coating has set. Repeat with the rest of the biscuits.

 

For more easy baking recipes using Lily O'Brien's Chocolate visit our Chocolate Blog