{Jam Hearts}

A special little girlfriend of ours turns two today, she had a party this weekend and I made these little strawberry lovehearts to take along to the picnic, they are pretty cute just like her and were fun to make, oh and I should mention I had to make them twice as Billy who helped me make them the first time was so excited to show his brother when he got home from kinder that he dropped the first batch on the floor and being a delicate shortbread in a delicate shape they basically smashed to smitherines. I was so gobsmacked I stood silent looking at the pile of jammy crumbs, Billy summed it up nicely with an "ut oh".

...the biscuits

450g butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups plain flour

pinch of salt

about half a cup of jam

Preheat your oven to 180 and line a baking tray with baking paper. Using a mixer cream together the butter and icing sugar, once pale add in the vanilla and mix till combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the salt and the flour and continue mixing till the dough comes together.

Sprinkle your surface with flour and with a rolling pin, roll the dough until it is about an 3mm thick. Cut out your lovehearts punching out the centers of half of them, use a palate knife or spatula to move them gently onto your tray then bake for approximately 8 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are just starting to go lightly golden.

Cool cookies on a rack til you can handle them then drop 1/2 tsp of warm jam onto the full loveheart and press a punched out one on top, allow them to cool completely at which point they will stick together.