125 g butter, softened
2 tspns finely grated lemon (or orange)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk1 cup plain flour
2 tbspn self raising flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1 tbspn rose buds, pull out stems and shake out seeds, then crush petals
Icing
2 egg whites
450gms soft icing sugar
Oven 180C /160C (fan forced)
Beat Butter, rind and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg yolk. Sift all flours together, add to mix along with almond meal and rose buds, stir until well combined (do not beat). Knead cookie dough on a floured board/bench until smooth. Seperate into two balls, roll each one between sheets of baking paper - about 5mm thick. Place dough in fridge (still between baking sheets), for approx 1/2 hour so it becomes firm.
Once firm, cut out heart shapes and bake a few cm's apart for about 12 minutes, until just turning golden brown. Allow to cool a little before transferring to cooling rack.
Once the cookies are completely cool, make up the icing mixture.
To prepare icing, beat the egg whites and the icing sugar until very light, white and fluffy (resembling toothpaste). Place 1/2 the mixture into a bowl, and the remaining mixture into two seperate bowls. Tint the larger bowl and one the smaller bowls pink, then add a little water to the larger of the two to make it a bit runny, this is the 'flow icing', leave the third bowl white,and add a little water so it is runny to use as flow icing. Place the icing into piping bags or tubes using a mid size hole on the flow icing, a small hole on the white (to use for the dots) and a very small hole on the firmer pink icing (this is the line icing).
Trace around the edge of the hearts with the line icing, once this is dry, pour in the pink flow icing and allow it to flow to the edges of the line icing, filling in the entire surface of the cookie. Using the white flow icing place tiny dots on the cookie - this will run into the pink icing and spread a little, so make the dots small - practice on a few first if you are new to all this. Sprinkle some of the plain pink cookies with crushed rose petals. Turn your oven on to 50C and place the iced cookies in for 15 minutes, this will help the icing to set really well.
Package them up in something gorgeous and share with friends, loved ones or that special someone.
Have a delicious Valentines Day!
p.s. don't forget my Valentines Heart for those crafty people out there.... a few posts ago...
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