Valentine's Day Cat Linzer Biscuits Recipe

These Valentine's Day cat-shaped linzer biscuits are perfect for presenting your loved ones (and yourself) with on the (or any) special day.

I first made giant 'great big jammy biscuits' versions of these linzer biscuits in 2013, where I used huge heart-shaped biscuit cutters. This time I've made them more 'normal' sized, with smaller cat cookie cutters, stamping a mini heart into the top layers.

These linzer biscuits are super buttery with a hint of almond. You can omit the almond extract and just go with vanilla if you're not an almond fan. If you don't mind either way, do keep it in: it makes these biscuits extra-fragrant.

You can use any jam you like, or even lemon curd – but to get that classic love heart look in these Valentine's Day biscuits, strawberry or raspberry jam is best.

You can also watch me make these on my YouTube channel:

Ready? Let's go.

(Makes 16 filled biscuits with my small cat biscuits cutter.)

Ingredients:

170g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
320g plain flour
100g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
4 tbsp icing sugar
A few drops of water
Strawberry jam

Method:

1. In a large bowl, rub the butter, flour, sugar and salt together until it all forms a rough breadcrumb texture.

2. Stir in the egg, vanilla and almond extracts, and knead until you have a smooth dough.

3. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill in the fridge for an hour.

4. Line a couple of large baking trays with nonstick baking paper. Roll the dough out until it's about a pound coin in thickness, and cut out your biscuits in your desired shape.

5. Place your cut-out dough shapes on your prepared baking trays and pop in the fridge for another hour.

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cut out smaller shapes in half of your biscuits (save the mini cut-outs and bake them separately to get mini biscuits, or squish them together, roll out and make more bigger biscuits). Bake your biscuits for 10–12 minutes (or just 6–8 for the mini ones), or until just going golden around the edges. Leave to cool completely.

7. Make a thick icing by gradually stirring the water into the icing sugar a little at a time. Spread on just the edges of your 'whole' biscuits, fill the centre with a teaspoonful of jam (spreading it to the edges of the icing), and sandwich with a 'holy' biscuits on top so you can see the jam through the hole.

8. Repeat with all your biscuits, and let the icing set a little for a couple of minutes.

Enjoy, and have fun.