Christmas isn’t Christmas without honey hearts. I eat them guiltily all through December for afternoon tea. Recipes for honey cakes and the way spices are used in them can be traced back to the middle ages. They can also be decorated with icing and hung on your tree, or shaped into men, women and Santa. The full flavour of honey in these cookies first really appears after a week, so bake them well in advance of Christmas.
Makes about 20-25
honey 500g
egg yolks 3
plain wheat flour 500g, sifted
baking powder 2 tsp
baking soda ½ tsp
ground cinnamon 2 tsp
ground cloves 1 tsp
ground allspice 1 tsp
tempered dark chocolate 300g (see below)
