Chocolate orange sugar hearts

Cream the butter and caster sugar together until pale and soft. Add the eggs, orange rind and vanilla extract and mix together.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips in a bowl. Add this to the butter mixture and mix gently until the dough comes together and everything is combined.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Dust the work surface and a rolling pin with a little flour, and roll the dough out to a thickness of 5mm. Use a heart (or any other) cutter to cut out shapes. Pop these onto your prepared tray allowing a little room for spreading. Pop the tray in the oven for 6 minutes, then rotate the tray 180 degrees and bake for a further 4-6 minutes, or until the edges and bases of the cookies are starting to turn golden.

IMPORTANT: Baking time will depend on the size of your cookies! Place the cookies on a cooling rack.

Break the dark chocolate into pieces and carefully melt in the microwave on a low setting, whisking every 30 – 60 seconds. Scrape the melted chocolate into a small piping bag / sandwich bag with a hole cut in the corner and drizzle the chocolate over the cooled biscuits. Allow to set before packing the biscuits into an airtight container.

Recipe reprinted with permission of Cupcakes & Cous Cous. To see more recipes, click here.