Heart in the Middle Cookies

Pop the flour and butter into a bowl and rub together to make fine crumbs. Add in the sugar, egg yolks and lemon then mix until it forms a smooth dough.

Take 1/3 of the mixture out of the dough, then wrap the largest ball of dough in cling film and pop it in the fridge.

With the remaining dough, add a drop of food colouring and mix, add more colouring to achieve an intense colour. If the dough has become too soft, add in a few spoonfuls more flour until it is a similar consistency to the dough. Put the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out the pink dough between baking parchment. This should be quite thick. Use a small 3-4cm heart cutter to stamp out hearts. Keep re-rolling and stamping until all the dough is used. Line up hearts on top of each other and press to form a cylinder, taking care to retain the heart shape. Wrap in cling film and freeze for 2 hours until solid.

After 2 hours, roll the white dough, until it will wrap around the heart. Wrap around the heart roll. Gently roll on your work surface until it completely covers the coloured dough, with the frozen heart dough hidden in the centre. Chill for 2 hours.

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Use a sharp knife to slice the log into 1cm-thick discs. Place on trays lined with baking parchment, allowing space for spreading, and bake for 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks. 

Once cooled, use the white writing pen to pipe on messages to your loved one!