Michelle Darmody: How to bake love-heart jam cookies for Valentine’s Day (2024)

As far as cookies go this recipe does not require a lot of ingredients. I feel that the butter and jam are key.

Choosing a nice jam makes a difference and using real butter, rather than a substitute is important.

There are some great Irish jams available which have a high percentage of fruit in them.

It is best to use a nice thick and sticky jam. If you find your jam is a bit runny you can heat it gently until bubbling, then allow it to cool before using.

In the 14th century, people exchanged roses and songs on Valentine's Day.

Some say the particular date was chosen to coincide with the birdsong of early spring, that the chorus encouraged ‘love birds’ to flourish.

It was not until chocolate was manufactured commercially, at the time of the Industrial Revolution, that sweet treats were used to show affection on Valentine's Day.

Chocolates were presented in heart-shaped boxes.

After the chocolates had been eaten, the box was intended to store romantic items like love letters, trinkets, or locks of your loved ones' hair.

Baker's tips

If your cookies are a little greasy or do not have a snap, it is most likely that the butter was not kept cold enough.

It is a good idea to keep your butter as cold as possible at each step.

While rubbing it into the flour and sugar do so as quickly as possible so it does not turn to oil in your hands.

After the dough has been rolled and cut, you can pop the tray of cookie discs into the fridge to firm up before baking.

Never place cookie dough onto a hot baking sheet the cooler the baking sheet is, the better.

If your cookies aren't baking evenly the most likely issue is an uneven size of cookies.

You need to ensure to use the same size cutter for all cookies and to roll all of the dough to the same thickness.

Hot spots in your oven may also be a problem if the cookies are baking unevenly.

A lot of ovens, even if they have a fan, have some parts warmer than others. If you think this is the case you can rotate your baking tray halfway through baking.

You do not need the cookies to rise so there is no problem opening the door of the oven during baking.

It is also good to have the trays in the centre of the oven rather than too near the top or the floor.

It is not advisable to use eggs straight from the fridge, they are best at room temperature.

Eggs at room temperature are better for baking because they blend more evenly, while cold eggs can cause the dough to become lumpy.

3 delicious variations

Chocolate hazelnut sandwiches

Add 20g of very finely chopped hazelnuts to the cookie dough when you are adding the egg.

You can make a thick chocolate ganache for the filling by heating 80mls of cream and stirring in 180g of dark chocolate and 20g of butter.

Stir until the chocolate has just melted and then leave to harden before spooning onto the base cookies.

Vanilla stars

Cut out about 28 stars from the cookie dough instead of the discs.

To make the vanilla sugar split two vanilla pods down the middle, lengthways, using the tip of a knife scrape out the sticky centre and add to 300g of caster sugar.

Liquidize this until the sugar looks like icing sugar and the vanilla is mixed in.

Sieve the vanilla sugar over the cookies while they are still warm.

Thumbprint biscuits

Instead of rolling out the dough roll it into balls about half the size of a golf ball.

Roll between your palms until smooth and firm, then gently press your thumb into the centre of each ball.

Spoon a dollop of jam into the hollow your thumb makes.

Put into the fridge to firm up for at least half an hour and then bake for about 18 minutes until golden.