For those of you who are inclined to celebrate Valentine's Day, I have a special treat for you. I’m making my version of Pop Tarts©, in the
form of Rosie’s Valentine Pop Hearts. I
have a heart-shaped pastry crust enclosing a double filling of a sweetened,
vanilla-laced cream cheese spread and strawcherry jam with a citrus kick. I also made chocolate-covered strawberries to
go along with the pastries and used bittersweet chocolate, white chocolate, and
caramel for drizzling, along with toasted coconut for sprinkling over my
Pop-Hearts.
Start with some pie dough. I use the refrigerated roll-up dough that comes two to a box. It's in the dairy section. Of course, you can make your own dough, but I was in a hurry. Roll the dough out and cut it into little hearts, 3-4 inches across the top. You'll need two cutouts for each heart. I'm using two fillings for my hearts. The first is a sweetened, vanilla-laced cream cheese and the second is a strawcherry jam-like filling with a citrus kick. I made plenty of the strawcherry filling because I can use it on a lot of stuff besides these hearts. For example, top some bagels with it, use it on toast, spoon over pancakes, swirl it into ice cream, top cheesecake with it, etc.
I always like little extra touches, so I melted both dark and white chocolates to drizzle over top of the Pop Hearts and also to coat strawberries with. And I made some caramel to pour over the hearts, along with some toasted coconut for good measure.
Remove pie dough from refrigerator and let it come to room temperature while you prepare the fillings.
Strawcherry Filling
Purée the fruit in a processor then pour into a small pan. Bring to a simmer, then stir in the sugar and cook until dissolved. Pour in the cornstarch slurry, stir, and cook about 5 minutes, until mixture is thickened. Let cool a bit.
Cream Cheese Filling
Make the Pop Hearts:
Using a template, cut heart shapes out of the pie dough. When you get down to scraps, just ball them up and roll them out and continue cutting. For each Pop Heart, you’ll need two heart-shaped pieces. Any extra pieces, brush with an egg wash and sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar, turbinado sugar, or sprinkles and bake along with the filled hearts.
Place bottom heart on baking sheet covered in parchment paper and smear some of the cream cheese mixture on it. Spoon the strawcherry over the cream cheese. Next, I grated a bit of orange and lemon zest over the jam. Brush a little water around the edges of the bottom pastry, then top with a pastry heart. Use a fork to press around the edges to seal. I used a small, sharp knife to cut a heart-shaped vent in the top. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
For decorations, I melted bittersweet chocolate bits and white chocolate bits, separately, in a double boiler, being careful not to get any moisture in the chocolate. Even a drop of water in the chocolate will make it seize up. Stir until smooth. Dip whole strawberries into the chocolates, turning to coat. Place on wax paper to set. Using fork tines, dip into a contrasting chocolate and zigzag over the coated strawberries. Drizzle the melted chocolates over the baked hearts.
If you like, you can go with a caramel topping and toasted coconut.
For the coconut, I simply poured a couple handfuls of sweetened coconut flakes into a skillet over medium low heat, added a handful of brown sugar, and stirred until the sugar was melted and the coconut was golden.
For the caramel sauce:
In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt butter. Add sugar and cream, cooking over medium low heat and stirring until sugar is dissolved. Bring mixture to a boil for about 3 minutes, stirring. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool at bit, then drizzle over hearts. Sprinkle coconut over top.
For the step-by-steps, here ya go:
Just push it through.
Coarse purée the strawberries and cherries in your processor.
Small saucepan.
Add sugar.
Cook.
Cornstarch slurry.
Using a template, cut out your hearts.
Scrape up the leftovers.
Ball it up and roll it back out.
Place hearts on parchment paper on baking sheet.
Schmear a little cream cheese mixture on top of each heart.
Then plop the strawcherry mixture on.
Top with another heart pastry, wet the edges, and fork it to seal.
Cut a little heart vent out.
Brush with egg wash.
A little sprinkling of turbinado sugar.
Dip strawberries in chocolate, then drizzle a contrasting chocolate over top.
Drizzle chocolates over baked hearts.
Cook, stirring, until golden brown.
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