Valentine's Shortbread Hearts

We've already given you a recipe for shortbread, but here's a twist turn turn them into Valentine's heart cookies.

Ingredients
250 g flour
75 g castor sugar
150 g unsalted butter
pinch of salt

Method
Preheat the oven to 170° C.

Place the flour, sugar, butter and a pinch of salt in the bowl of a food processor. Blend until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs and starts binding together.

Remove the dough from the food processor and knead lightly until the mixture comes together. Roll the pastry out thinly cut into hearts with a pastry cutter. Place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and prick with a fork to prevent them rising too much.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until pale golden. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with castor sugar. Allow to cool completely. Decorate with pink icing) or any color of your choice. You can either make your own or use store bought.

Shortbread keeps well for a couple weeks if stored in an airtight container. But if you're as greedy as we are, it will probably only last a couple of days!

If you don't have a food processor, shortbread and also be made by hand.

We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours


Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everybody loves a good chocolate chip cookie. Here is our recipe - it's simple to make but always gives great results. A great way to get the kids in the kitchen.

Ingredients
125 g butter, softened
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C and grease a baking tray or line with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg. Stir in the sifted flour and baking powder until just combined. Stir through chocolate chips. (At this point you can form the mixture into a log and freeze for later. Just slice into 1 cm thick rounds and bake.)

Place spoonfuls of the mixture onto baking tray, allowing room for spreading. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack before diving in!

We, the Amsterdam Flavours chefs, hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. If you have any questions on how to prepare it or just want to send us your feedback, you can reach us here Contact Amsterdam Flavours