The perfect gift for your Valentine, or for showing you care at any time of the year.
Warmly spiced, with a decadent topping of rich chocolate, the recipe gives enough for 24 hearts, which is plenty for sharing the love.
The dough needs to be chilled for several hours before baking so these are best made the day before.
To make your own gingerbread spice combine the following:
- 2 tablespoons ground ginger
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground allspice
- 1 tablespoon ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
Gingerbread hearts
A warmly spiced soft gingerbread biscuit with a luxury chocolate topping.
Ingredients
- For the dough
- 125 g honey
- 125 g sugar
- 75 g butter
- 1 egg
- 50 g ground almonds
- 200 g plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon gingerbread spice
- 1/2 teaspoon orange oil
- 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 cl brandy
- For the topping
- 125 g dark chocolate melted
- Sugar or chocolate hearts for decoration
Instructions
- Warm the honey, sugar and butter in a saucepan stirring constantly until all the sugar has dissolved
- Pour into a mixing bowl and leave to cool.
- Add the egg, almonds, flour, cinnamon, gingerbread spice cocoa and orange oil to the mixture and knead thoroughly until it forms a smooth dough.
- Mix the bicarbonate of soda and the brandy together and add to the dough, continuing to knead well.
- The dough will be a little sticky at this stage and you may need to add a little more flour until it is smooth, glossy and doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl.
- Wrap in cling film and leave in the fridge overnight, or for at least six hours.
- Roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface until just over a centimetre thick and cut into heart shapes.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and bake for around 15 – 20 minutes.
- The hearts will still be soft at this stage so remove them from the oven and carefully place on a wire tray to cool thoroughly – they will harden up a little during this process.
- For the topping
- Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.
- Allow to cool slightly then, gently dip the top of the hearts into the melted chocolate and place on greaseproof paper to dry.
- Add a drizzle of melted chocolate, using a piping bag and decorate with the sugar or chocolate hearts.
Other recipes you may like:
• Coconut ice
• Gingerbread cake
• Milla’s mead