Early bird Valentine's jewelled cinnamon biscuits

Valentine's Day is a funny old celebration. It seems to come at just the right length of time after Christmas, so that if you're in a relationship you have enough time to think about and save up for a little present for your other half, or if you aren't, it's a great excuse to get together with friends and share a bottle of wine after Christmas and New Year and the January "detox".

My relationship with Jim has been the longest I've ever been in, which is fab, but something that has slightly distressed me over the past couple of years, is that we seem to have reached a stage where every year we have the old "Let's not do Valentine's Day presents this year" chat. I spoke to a friend last night who said she and her boyfriend had the same chat pre-Christmas. Of course, all ladies know that despite what is actually being said, it does not mean NO presents. So on Christmas Day she gave him a nice leather wallet, but sadly he took what had been discussed as gospel and she ended up with nothing. Take note boys, in no way does "not doing presents" really mean NO presents, it simply means something moderate, as opposed to a trip to Paris/ten thousand red roses/a Pandora necklace. No one should be completely presentless at Valentine's Day and definitely not at Christmas.

So, bearing this in mind, I set about thinking about a present that I could give Jim, which would be moderate - low-cost, but high-impact. Jim is a sucker for biscuits. He uses making a cup of tea as an excuse to then dip into it and eat as many biscuits as he can. So this was a good starting point - biscuits.

I remember my Mum baking some particularly fun biscuits with my sisters and me years and years ago, where the general method was to make a simple biscuit dough, cut out the cookies, smash up loads of boiled sweets with a rolling pin......sounds bizarre doesn't it. Well, I have refined this method and the ingredients list (see below), and added a dash of cinnamon to make the biscuits a bit more grown up and perfect for a subtle yet well-received Valentine's treat....

Jewelled cinnamon biscuits
Ingredients:
150g butter or margerine
200g caster sugar
300g plain flour (and a bit for rolling out the dough)
1 egg
1 tsp cinnamon
a few drops of vanilla essence/extract
a pinch of salt
and one pack of boiled sweets

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 175C (350 farenheit/gas mark 4) and line your baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Beat the sugar, butter and vanila together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, then add the egg, and beat until it is all incorporated.
3. Stir in the flour and salt with a wooden spooen until the mixture starts to stick together in a soft dough.
4. Roll out the dough on a floured surface, with a floured rolling pin, to about 5mm thick.

5. Using a selection of cookie cutters, cut out large shapes and then cut out smaller shapes inside, and transfer to your baking trays.

6. Place a boiled sweet in a sandwich/freezer bag and bash until crumbled with your rolling pin. Sprinkle the crushed sweet in the gaps in the biscuits.

7. Bake your biscuits for 8-9 minutes or until they start to go a very light brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before removing them from the greaseproof paper.

8. Serve them to your boyfriend/girlfriend in a tin or on a plate with a nice cup of tea!

Christmas gingerbread

This is a wonderfully easy and tasty recipe that makes the kitchen smell amazing while the gingerbread is cooking, and looks lovely once decorated, and possibly strung up in garlands around the house. They last well too, so can be packaged or boxed up and given to people as presents or when you have visitors over the Christmas period, and they'll continue to taste good!

To make 16-20 medium to large gingerbread biscuits you will need the following ingredients:

• 350g plain flour
• 75g caster sugar
• 75g dark soft brown sugar
• 100g unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tsp bicarbonate soda
• 2 tsps ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• a tiny pinch of salt
• Icing sugar, water, food colouring and sprinkles etc (if you fancy) for the biscuit decoration

Method:

1. Set the oven to 180 degrees C (350 F/gas mark 4) and simply mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl while making sure there are no lumps of dark brown sugar left in the mix.
2. Make a well in the middle and mix in all the remaining ingredients (a bit of olive oil on the measuring spoon stops the golden syrup from sticking), then using your hands form the mixture into a ball of dough.
3. Roll out the dough on a floured surface, with a floured rolling pin, until it's about 5mm thick.
4. Cut out your biscuits and remember to make holes in the top before they go into the oven if you are planning on hanging the biscuits up as decorations. Place on greased and lined baking trays and cook for 9-10 minutes, checking regularly until they are light golden brown.
5. Let the biscuits cool on the baking trays before turning them onto a wire cooling rack. Check to make sure the holes haven't closed up.
6. When they are completely cool, follow instuctions on the side of your icing sugar box to make icing and pipe onto the biscuits into Christmassy designs!

I went for "Merry Christmas" written on the gingerbread biscuits and strung up on string as a garland.

Alternatively, you can attach string or ribbon to individual biscuits and give them as smaller gifts for friends and family:

Have a SSSSSSSSSSuper Christmas!!