Lemon heart biscuits

• Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
• Put the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat together until smooth, light and fluffy,
• Crack the egg into a cup or small bowl and beat the yolk and the white together with a fork. Pour into the butter mixture and beat well to mix it in.
• Measure in the vanilla extract. Finely grate in the zest of the lemon – don’t grate too hard, you only want the yellow outside and not the white pith underneath (this can taste very bitter).
• Tip in the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon until it all comes together as a smooth dough – it might be quite stiff to mix but keep going with the spoon or spatula until there are no dry bits of flour left in the bowl.
• If you have time, cover the bowl with cling film and pop it in the fridge to chill for 10-20 minutes. This will help the dough firm up so that the biscuits keep their shape when baking.
• When ready, lightly dust your work surface with flour. Scoop out the biscuit dough and roll it out with a rolling pin to a large circle – it should be about 1cm thick.
• Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to stamp out heart biscuits. Carefully lift these onto the lined baking tray. Squash all the dough trimmings back together and roll out again. Stamp out more shapes and keep going until all the dough has been used.
• Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes – they should be golden all over and looking crisp. Carefully lift the biscuits off the tray using a palette knife and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
• Meanwhile, break the white chocolate into small pieces (or use baking chocolate chips) and place in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a small saucepan that has a little bit of water in. Bring the water to a simmer over a medium heat and leave the bowl on top – be careful that the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water – so that the chocolate starts to melt.
• Once nearly all melted, give the chocolate a stir so that it is smooth. Carefully lift the bowl (it will be hot!) off the heat and set aside.
• Take one of the biscuits and dip half into the chocolate – you just want to cover half in a nice layer. Let any excess drip off back into the bowl then lay the biscuit back on the wire rack (pop a baking tray or sheet of baking paper underneath to catch any chocolate drips) or on a large sheet of baking paper, to set.
• Sprinkle some colourful decorations over the melted chocolate and leave to set.
• Repeat with all the biscuits until all are dipped and decorated. Leave until completely set. You could package up the biscuits in a pretty box with tissue paper or in a clean jar with a ribbon for a gift.

Chef’s tips

You can easily make changes to this recipe…

- Swap the lemon zest for orange zest or leave out for plain vanilla biscuits. You could also try a half teaspoon of cinnamon or ginger for spiced biscuits.

- If you don’t have a heart-shaped cuter, you can use any other shape or make a stencil out of card and carefully cut around it with a small, sharp knife.

- Dip in melted milk or dark chocolate instead of white.

- Instead of dipping in chocolate, put the melted chocolate in a small piping back and zigzag the chocolate back and forth over the biscuits.

Make ahead

The dough can be made then chilled (in the bowl or as stamped-out biscuits on the baking tray) for up to 1 day before baking.