Hot chilli hearts
Shops are overflowing with chocolate at the moment: truffles, biscuits, lollipops. All wrapped in pink with little roses and sprinkles. As a lady that made me think “why yes I love all these little sweet gifts on Valentine’s” but more often than not my better half doesn’t appreciate chocolate as much as I do. Especially when they are wrapped in pink heart-shaped boxes.
He likes chilli, manly, puts-hair-on-your-chest fiery type ones. So I made him some red hot chilli biscuits. Heart-shaped ones because let’s not forget, it is Valentine’s after all.
Cheddar and chilli biscuits (makes around 20)
100g Plain flour
100g Cold unsalted butter, diced
1 tsp cornflour
90g extra mature Cheddar, finely grated
1 red chili, finely diced
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp Paprika
Depending on how hot you like your food, adjust for measures of chili and cayenne pepper. And remember to protect your hands with gloves or a little plastic bag when removing seeds from chili!
1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Mix plain flour and butter with hands until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add all other ingredients and mix with hands until dough is homogeneous. Knead briefly onto a floured surface. The dough might be sticky but don’t be scared to dust a bit more flour as you roll out with a pin until it is half an inch in thickness.
3. At this point I used my heart cutters but you can use whatever, even just cutting into squares with a knife. I made just over 20 biscuits.
4. Carefully place your biscuits on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 10-15 minutes, keep an eye on them after 10 minutes because they brown really fast and what you are looking for is just a lightly golden colour on them.
And it really is as easy as it looks.
