- The illustrative delights of Good Housekeeping’s Playtime Biscuits
Fit for your dream-beau, best friend or secret crush; these Valentine Biscuits are enough to make any heart melt. They’re taken from Good Housekeeping’s Biscuits and Cookies (1955); a pictorial booklet containing super-sweet recipes, playful illustrations and good advice…’you will never lack something to offer the casual visitor if you keep a stock of delicious home-made biscuits…’ . We couldn’t agree more.
In 1955, the booklet sold at one shilling and sixpence
Ingredients:
- 6oz plain flour
- A pinch of salt
- 3oz margarine
- 3oz caster sugar
- 1 egg
- A few drops of vanilla essence
- Milk to mix
Method:
- Sieve the flour and salt
- Cream the fat and sugar, and when light and fluffy, beat in the egg
- Add essence, stir in flour and mix to a stiff paste with milk
- Roll the dough out 1/8 thick on a lightly floured board, prick, and then using fancy cutters, shape into biscuits and put on a greased baking tin
- Bake in a moderately hot oven for 10-15 minutes, til golden (these quantities make about 24 biscuits)
- Coat shapes with royal icing, and when hard, paint on simple designs in edible colouring
Verdict:
The biscuit base can be whipped up in no time, perfect for a last minute bake-off. If time’s on your side, get experimental with coloured icing, silver balls or hundreds and thousands.
Pop hearts into a cute box, tie with a ribbon and… deliver to your Valentine!
Iced or plain, these biscuits make the sweetest gift
Iced or plain? What a question. Lashing of sugar every time. They remind me of the hearts Edward Scissorhands made at the beginning of the film. But they weren’t as pretty.
I made these for my friend’s birthday yesterday and they looked so cute! I found that I had to add quite a bit more flour than the recipe suggested as the mixture was a bit too sticky to begin with. I used pink icing and decorated my hearts with little silver balls, they looked adorable and tasted yummy. A really lovely recipe, thank you!