Say I love you with these scrumptious Valentine’s shortbread hearts! They’re buttery, crumbly, dipped in chocolate and decorated with pretty pink sprinkles.
About these Valentine’s Shortbread Hearts
- TASTE: sweet chocolate and buttery shortbread. It’s a match made in heaven!
- TEXTURE: crumbly and crunchy all in one. These Valentine’s shortbreads really do melt in the mouth.
- EASE: you only need 5 ingredients to make this recipe. It’s simple and easy.
- PERFECT FOR: your Valentine, Galentine, Palentine or as a delicious treat for yourself!
You only need 5 ingredients to make this recipe
Don’t you just love a simple recipe with minimal ingredients? Here’s your ingredient list to make these Valentine’s shortbread hearts:
- Plain flour – Used to bind the shortbread together.
- Unsalted butter – Gives the shortbread that lovely buttery flavour. Do not substitute for baking spread or margarine, otherwise, the shortbread will spread too much in the oven and won’t hold it’s heart-shape.
- Caster sugar – Adds a little sweetness to the shortbread.
- Chocolate – I dipped half the shortbread hearts in milk chocolate and the other half in white chocolate.
- Sprinkles – the cuter the better!
For the perfect heart-shape, chill the shortbread before baking
The secret to perfectly shaped shortbread is chilling the dough before baking. This will firm up the shortbread hearts and solidify the butter, helping to prevent spread in the oven. It also develops the flavours in the dough too, making the shortbread even more delicious.
Stamp out your heart shapes and place on a lined baking tray. Remember to use a tray that will fit inside your fridge. Chill for about 30 minutes until firm and cold to the touch. Then bake for 10-12 minutes.
Decorating the shortbread hearts
Once the shortbread hearts are cool, it’s time to dunk them in chocolate. I decided to use milk and white chocolate and half-dunk the biscuits so that half of the shortbread was still visible. But it honestly doesn’t matter too much, get creative and decorate your valentines shortbread however you wish!
The easiest, least-messy way to do the dunking, is to melt the chocolate in a small shallow bowl so that the pool of melted chocolate is deep. That way you can submerge half of the biscuit, lift it out and let the excess drip off. Place the dunked biscuits on a wire rack with a piece of greaseproof paper underneath to catch any chocolate drips.
Valentine’s Shortbread Hearts
Ingredients
- 150 g Plain flour
- 100 g Unsalted butter soft at room temperature
- 50 g Caster sugar
- 50 g Milk chocolate
- 50 g White chocolate
- Valentine's sprinkles to decorate
Instructions
Make the shortbread hearts
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add the flour and use your hands to bring the mixture together into a dough.
- Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, line a large flat baking tray with greaseproof paper.
- Lightly flour a worktop and rolling pin, and roll the dough out to roughly 0.5cm thick.
- Use heart-shaped cookie cutters to stamp out hearts and place them on the baking tray. You’ll need to bring the dough together again to get 10 in total.
- Place the baking tray in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes (this will help the shortbread hearts keep their shape). Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160°C fan / 180°C conventional.
- Bake for 10-12 mins until pale golden brown. Leave to cool on the baking tray.
Decorate the shortbread hearts
- Break up the two chocolates into separate bowls. Melt in the microwave in 30-second blasts, stirring between each, until smooth.
- Dip half of the hearts in milk chocolate and the other half in white chocolate.
- Decorate with sprinkles and leave to set for 20-30 minutes.