Honey hearts

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 450 g honey
• 250 g sugar
• 100 g butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 packs of lemon(s), grated zest (finesse)
• 2 packs of orange(s), grated peel (Finesse)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp gingerbread spice
• 1 kg flour
• 2 packets of baking powder
• Jam, to taste
• 400 g dark chocolate coating
• 100 g butter
• 200 g cream

Instructions

Working time approx. 2 hours; Total time approx. 2 hours

our absolute favorites at Christmas time!, makes about 140 cookies

Heat the honey, butter, and sugar in a saucepan, stirring constantly. It should form a smooth, creamy mixture. Remove the pan from the heat, stir occasionally, and let it cool to lukewarm. Now put the flour, baking powder, gingerbread spice, cinnamon, Finesse grated lemon zest, and Finesse orange zest (you can, of course, also use freshly grated zest!) into a large bowl. Mix everything together. Then add the eggs and the lukewarm honey mixture. Now you need patience and strength! Knead the whole thing by hand until a firm dough forms! The dough will still be a bit brittle, but that’s okay. The important thing is that it is kneaded very well and becomes a firm dough (like cookies). For me, this always takes about 10-15 minutes. Now roll out the dough (I always take it piece by piece) to about 3-4mm thick and cut out the hearts with a cookie cutter. Place the hearts on a baking sheet lined with baking paper (two are best, as this makes it go faster) and bake at 180°C for 5-7 minutes. The hearts should still be light or slightly brown. If they’re dark, they’ll be bitter. When the cookies have cooled, spread jam on each heart and place another on top. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie. Gradually add the cream until it forms a nice, creamy, but not too runny mixture. Dip each double heart halfway into the chocolate, place it on a piece of baking paper, and let it dry. I always use the baking paper I used for the cookies and place the hearts on it to dry. I also prefer to let them dry overnight and only put them in the cookie tin the next day. I love these honey hearts. And I always bake them in this quantity, which is certainly quite a lot. I get about 140-150 double hearts out of this amount! But there aren’t any leftovers! Of course, you could also make half of this recipe. Perhaps you could then knead the dough in a food processor. I haven’t tried it yet, though.