These Vanilla Heart Shaped Shortbread Biscuits are such a cute Valentine’s Day bake! These gorgeous biscuits can be decorated simply with coloured buttercream and pretty sprinkles. If you prefer, you can leave the shortbreads plain either. They are incredibly easy to make, with only a couple ingredients that are easy to find; butter, sugar, flour and vanilla. Not only that, but they stay fresh for 5-7 days if stored correctly. It couldn’t be simpler to spread some love in biscuit form!
These simple vanilla shortbread biscuits come together in just a few easy steps;
– Vanilla Shortbread Dough
– Vanilla Buttercream
– Decorating
To begin making the shortbread dough, add the soft butter and sugar to a mixing bowl. Beat for 4-5 minutes until pale and smooth. Add in the vanilla and mix until combined. Add the flour and mix until combined. Make the dough into a ball and wrap in cling film. Chill for 20 minutes.
Lightly flour a clean work surface and roll out the chilled dough to about the same thickness as a coin. Using the heart cutter, cut out the dough carefully. Place onto flat lined baking trays. We gently knead together the leftover dough and repeat rolling it out and cutting it until you have used all the dough. Bake the shortbread biscuits for 8-10 minutes or until they just start to go golden brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before decorating.
In a mixing bowl, add the soft butter and beat for 3-4 minutes until pale and smooth. Add in the icing sugar, vanilla and milk and continue beating for 4-5 minutes until nearly white and fluffy.
Divide the buttercream into 3 smaller bowls and add drops of food colouring for your desired colour. I used one or two drops of red to make a pastel pink, and then 3-4 drops to make a more vibrant pink. I added a couple drops purple to the other bowl to make purple but you can experiment with any colours you would like!
Once the biscuits have completely cooled, carefully spread some buttercream on each one, about half a teaspoon depending on the size of your biscuits. Sprinkle over some sprinkles while the buttercream is still wet and serve immediately.I used a variety of sprinkles on these biscuits, I used Stuff4Cakes Glimmer Ice Stars – Mini, Fun Cakes sprinkle medley – Love, and a Crowns and hearts sprinkle mix from Lidl. If you have any biscuits you have leftover, you can keep them in an airtight container at room temperature for 5-7 days.
If you store these decorated cookies in an airtight container at room temperature, they will keep for at least 5-7 days.
While you can freeze the finished, decorated shortbreads without a huge change in quality, I would recommend freezing the raw dough instead for a longer shelf life. Decorated biscuits can be frozen for up to one month, where as shortbread dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. You can freeze the dough in solid lumps, to be defrosted and rolled out. Or you can freeze already rolled and cut shapes. To do this, place the cut out shapes on a flat, lined baking tray or plate. Place into the freezer for 1-2 hours until the shapes are frozen solid. Carefully transfer to an airtight container or ziploc bag. To defrost, remove from the freezer and place onto lined flat baking trays. Allow to defrost at room temperature for 20 minutes before baking as directed.
For this recipe, I would advise room temperature butter which is soft but not melted. This recipe includes the creaming of the butter and sugar, which room temperature, soft butter is best for. I advise chilling this dough for 20 minutes before baking to help keep the butter slightly cool. A dough that is a little too warm has a tendency to spread out more in the oven and will ruin the shape you have cut it into.
To tell if your biscuits are done, you will see the edges are starting to turn golden brown and when carefully lifted off the tray, the bottom of the biscuits are an even golden brown.
If your shortbread starts to rise in the oven, it’s likely the dough either hasn’t been mixed enough and pockets of fat are rising or your oven temperature is too high.
It’s very likely your oven temperature is too high. Some ovens run higher than the dial says. I always have an oven thermometer in my oven to make sure I can check the temperature correctly. They are relatively cheap and a great investment if you bake a lot.
Did your shortbread turn out like these in the photo?
There are a couple things that could have went wrong here to produce these results.
Firstly, your butter might have been too cold or you didn’t beat together the butter and sugar enough. When you beat the butter and sugar together, it should become soft and creamy. This helps incorporate the flour in to get an evenly mixed dough.
Similarly, you might not have mixed the dough sufficiently after adding the flour, resulting in pockets of butter that expand during baking.
The temperature on these biscuits was also a little high, causing the butter in the shortbread to run and melt and loose it’s shape before it has baked.
If your biscuits haven’t turned out right, are uneven or didn’t keep their shape, don’t worry! You can still decorate them as normal even if the texture isn’t quite right. You can also crumble the biscuits into crumbs and keep for cheesecake bases. Either pop them into a food processor or a ziploc bag and break them up with a rolling pin. Place the crumbs into an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months. Remove from the freezer whenever you need and let defrost for 15-20 minutes at room temperature before using.
For more Biscuit Recipes, check out my Biscuit Category, here.
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