It’s not often that this happens but every now & again, I do like to make something pretty. Something iced, patterned or bejewelled with a thousand sprinkles. I’m quite a lazy decorator, I usually just opt for a drizzle of something & a sprinkle of seeds, buts or petals but when the occasion calls for it, I like to up my game, whilst still retaining a little bit of me. That’s exactly what I’ve done for this Valentines day. Over the last week I’ve been challenging myself to create some new & romantic recipes either made for sharing or for gifting. These pretty little iced pistachio biscuits were actually the first thing that I knew I wanted to make. They’re so simple to actually bake that it gave me plenty of time to play around & work on making them pretty as a picture (scroll to the bottom of the recipe to see some different decorating ideas). Obviously I’ve gone for tones of pink because, well, who doesn’t love theme?
Even though we’re not one’s to go out to celebrate Valentines Day, one thing that is a must is good food (basically it’s just another excuse for us to indulge) & we often gift each other, our ourselves, some delicious treats. That’s where the inspiration for these originally came from. I think these iced pistachio biscuits hit all of the major gifting points, heart-shaped, pretty, pink, delicious & easier to make than they look!
These also have a bit of a special meaning as un-iced, they remind me so much of some of the many treats we usually enjoy when on our Italian travels. Seeing as we’re going to have to spend another year off from travelling, the next best thing we can enjoy is sharing some of the food we both love. I’ve even used to pretty dried flower petals that I dried out over the course of the summer to decorate, the sort of thing that I only reserve for special occasions. Hopefully there’s a loved one in your life that would be just as pleased to receive these as a little gift during these difficult times (don’t forget to love yourselves too though folks, double up & keep one batch for yourself!). Happy Valentines Day from me!
ICED PISTACHIO BISCUITS
(makes 15-20 biscuits)
Ingredients:
- 135g plain flour
- 50g granulated sugar
- 60g pistachios
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 115g butter, cubed
- Pinch of salt
To decorate:
- 300-400g icing sugar
- 2 egg whites
- A few drops of pink food colouring
- Some dried flower petals or sprinkles
Method:
- Place the flour, sugar & pistachios into the bowl of a food processor & blitz until the pistachios are fine & blended with the other ingredients
- Add the butter, vanilla & salt to the bowl & blitz in bursts just until a dough starts to form
- Use your hands to finish bringing the dough together & shape it into a round
- Cover the dough with a beeswax wrap or some cling film & place in the fridge to rest & chill for 10 minutes
- Remove the dough from the fridge & roll out to a thickness of roughly 1/2 cm thick
- Use a 8cm heart shaped (or your preference) cutter to cut out around 15-20 biscuits (depending on the size of your cutter) & place them on a baking tray lined with parchment
- Bake the biscuits in the oven at 180C for 12 – 15 minutes until they turn lovely & golden
- Remove from the oven & leave the biscuits to cool on their tray for 5 minutes before carefully removing & placing on a cooling rack to fully cool
- To make the icing add the egg white into a small bowl or jug & mix in just enough of the icing sugar to make a thick but pipeable icing
- Add a few drops of food colouring to reach the desired colour, or, if making more than one colour, divide the icing up into separate bowls then colour each one individually
- Pour into a piping bag (or bags) fitted with a fine nozzle & use to ice your biscuits by firstly piping along the edge of each biscuit before flooding inside the piped line to cover the whole biscuit
- Finish by sprinkling over the flower petals or sprinkles whilst the icing is still wet
