coconut meringue brittle hearts

coconut meringue brittle hearts

10 Feb 2025

I'm not one to celebrate Valentine's Day but when I saw Ottolenghi advertising coconut meringue brittle for Valentine's Day, I was intrigued. I realised there was a recipe for the brittle in Sweet and with a few tweaks I'd be able to make the brittle at home. 

I made half a batch, then wondered if I should fashion the brittle into hearts for Valentine's Day? I found a heart shaped cookie cutter and traced out 6 hearts onto the baking paper. Fashioning the hearts was a bit of a fiddle but then again Valentine's Day only comes around once a year. 

Ottolenghi describes the brittle as 'somewhere between a meringue and an old-fashioned coconut macaroon: as sweet as you'd want and expect, but with more of a crunch. They're informal, rustic and exceptionally moreish' and I have to agree. Although I coated the hearts with white chocolate, I think a dark chocolate coating would be just as delicious. 

Here's the recipe for you which makes 12 hearts. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Coconut Meringue Brittle Hearts

75g slivered almonds + additional 20g for topping
100g icing sugar
50g desiccated coconut
75g egg whites (from 2 large eggs)
½ tsp salt
75g icing sugar
¼ tsp vanilla extract

White chocolate coating 
120g white chocolate, roughly chopped Into I cm pieces
25g freeze-dried raspberries, roughly torn into pieces
20g toasted slivered almonds pieces
Sumac for sprinkling

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C, conventional. Spread the slivered almonds out on a baking tray and roast for about 5 minutes until the nuts are starting to turn light brown. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool. Reserve 20g for the topping before roughly chopping the rest of the almonds. Keep the oven turned on.

Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl, add the coconut and the chopped almonds and set aside until ready to use. Line two large baking trays with baking paper and trace 6 hearts onto each piece of paper using a heart shaped cookie cutter. Set aside.

To make the meringue, place the egg whites and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment in place. Beat on a medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Add the second portion of icing sugar in 1 go, continuing to whisk for about 5 minutes until the mixture is thick and glossy and stiff peaks form. Stir through the vanilla extract, then remove the bowl from the mixer. Use a large rubber spatula to gently but thoroughly fold in the icing sugar mixture.

Spoon twelve large spoonfuls of the mixture on to the parchment-lined trays and using a small spatula, roughly spread them out to form heart shapes about 1-1.5cm thick. If you can't be bothered making hearts, then just free form it. Don’t try for uniform shapes or sizes here, rustic is good. Place the trays in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 140°C, conventional. Bake for 1 hour, until the meringues are dry throughout but have not taken on too much colour. Turn off the oven but leave the meringues inside for about 30 minutes, propping the door open with a wooden spoon, to continue to cool and dry out. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool completely.

To coat the meringues
Place the chopped white chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure the base of the bowl is not touching the water. Stir occasionally until melted, then use a small metal spatula to spread the chocolate all over the base (flat side) of the meringues. Sprinkle some of the raspberries, the slivered almonds and touch of sumac on top of the chocolate after it's been brushed over the meringues. Set aside for about 1 hour until the chocolate has set, then pile high on a plate and serve.

Store in an airtight container with a layer of greaseproof paper in between the layers.

Trying to make chocolate coated hearts when the kitchen temperature was about 30°C was a bit of a challenge but nothing than 10 minutes in the fridge couldn't solve.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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passionfruit custard scrolls

passionfruit custard scrolls

11 Feb 2024

Some recipes take longer than others to perfect. I first made a batch of passionfruit custard scrolls around 3 years ago and they were a disaster. I used custard as the filling, which then leaked all over the kitchen bench as I tried to roll up the dough. What was I thinking? I knew I needed to rethink my technique and decided to make a regular scroll and to fill the scroll with custard just before baking. 

When I searched online I found that custard filled scrolls made this way are popular in Norway, so I knew it was doable. The recipe I've come up with is a bit of a patchwork quilt of a recipe. I used my favourite cinnamon bun dough from Sarah Kieffer filled with lemon flavoured butter and sugar; the custard filling comes from sugar salt magic and the passionfruit icing from Stephanie Alexander.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 8 scrolls. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Passionfruit custard scrolls - makes 8
Dough 
1 tsp yeast
125 mls milk, lukewarm
30g honey
1 room temperature egg

1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (300g) plain flour 
½ tsp salt
75g room temperature unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Custard 

¾ cup full cream milk 
1½ tbs caster sugar 

1 tsp vanilla extract
1 slightly heaped tbs cornflour 
1 egg yolk

Filling
100g caster sugar
4 tsp grated lemon rind
Pinch salt
80g room temperature butter
1 tbs almond meal

To finish
2 tbs melted butter or cream

Passionfruit Icing
1 cup icing sugar, sifted

pinch salt

50g unsalted butter

2 passionfruit

Dough
Grease a large bowl and set to one side. Combine the yeast, milk and honey in a large liquid measuring cup and rest for 5 minutes or until foamy then stir in the egg and the vanilla.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, mix the flour and salt and stir on low to combine. Add the egg mixture and mix on low to combine. With the mixer on low, add the butter, one piece at a time. When all the butter has been added (about 8 minutes) increase the speed to medium and beat the butter into the dough, until all the little butter pieces are incorporated, 1 minute. Transfer the dough to the prepared bowl. The dough will be very sticky and you will need a spatula to scrape the dough into the bowl.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Place your fingers or a spatula underneath the dough and gently pull the dough up and fold it back over itself. Turn the bowl and repeat this folding again. Continue 6 to 8 more times, until all the dough has been folded over on itself. Re-cover the bowl with plastic and let rise for 30 minutes. Repeat this series of folding 3 more times, for a rise time of 2 hours and a total of 4 foldings. Tightly cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 72 hours.

Custard
Pour ½ cup of milk into a heavy based saucepan. Add the sugar then heat on low-medium heat until steaming, stirring regularly to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat. (I did this step in the microwave.)

In a bowl whisk together the remaining ¼ cup milk, egg yolk and cornflour until smooth and fully combined. While whisking, very slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the egg mixture in a slow but steady stream. Once everything is combined, return the mix to the saucepan. 

Heat over medium heat, stirring with a whisk constantly, until it gets very thick and no longer settles into itself when you move it around. This will happen quite quickly after about 5 minutes so it’s important to keep gently whisking increasing intensity as it gets very thick. At this stage add the vanilla. Swap to a silicone spatula and pass the custard through a strainer into a clean bowl, then press plastic wrap to the surface and allow to cool to room temperature. Place in the fridge until needed. (I made the custard in a plastic measuring jug in the microwave and it only took 2 minutes on medium high, stirring every 30 seconds. The custard came out lovely and smooth so I didn't need to sieve the mixture.)

Filling
Combine the sugar, lemon zest and a pinch of salt in a small bowl then using your fingers rub the lemon zest into the sugar. Add the remaining ingredients and mix with a spoon until you have a smooth paste.

To assemble
Flour a work surface and knead the dough 10 to 12 times to activate the gluten. Shape the dough into a ball, cover the top lightly with flour, and cover with a tea towel and let come to room temperature. Line a tray with baking paper and set to one side. 

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to form an 8 x 12-inch rectangle. Spread the filling evenly out onto the dough then roll up firmly from the long edge. Using a very sharp knife or pastry wheel, cut the dough to form 8 rolls. Set the rolls on baking trays covered with baking paper, about 5 cm apart.  Cover with a cloth and leave the rolls to rise in a warm place until they have doubled in size. 

Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. When the buns have risen, make a deep indentation in the centre of the buns with your fingers. Loosen the custard by stirring vigorously with a spoon to remove any lumps that might have formed. Fill the buns with a tablespoon of the custard filling then brush each roll with some melted butter or cream. Bake the rolls for 20 minutes on the centre rack or until the rolls are golden brown, rotating the pan halfway through. Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before making the passionfruit icing. 

Icing
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, adding a pinch of salt. Melt the butter, then add it to the icing sugar followed by the passionfruit pulp. If the icing is looking a little too thick you can thin it out with some lemon juice or boiling water. Place the bowl over hot water, then beat the icing for 1-2 minutes until shiny. Generously drizzle the icing over each bun.

These are best served on the day they're made but can be frozen and defrosted.

I don't do Valentine's Day but food has always been my love language and these passionfruit custard scrolls are a perfect way to show your love.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kicthen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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mini pavlovas

mini pavlovas

11 Feb 2019

With Valentine's Day just around the corner the time had come to make some individual pavlovas. I always had loads of trouble baking meringue in my old gas oven. The flame would go out all the time, making meringues into a very long and slow process. I've had my new oven for 2 years now and haven't tried making a pavlova in all that time. 



I like mini desserts, so instead of making one large pavlova I decided to make 6 individual pavlovas. I measured everything out the night before and in no time at all I had a bowl of fluffy white meringue that I wrangled into 6 small pavlovas.



My new oven goes from 160°C to 'low' and I had no idea what that temperature was, but that's what I used. It must be quite low, because after an hour the meringues still weren't quite dry to the touch. The mini pavlovas took 1½ hours to bake, then I left them in the turned off oven to dry.

Traditionally a pavlova is topped with whipped cream and passionfruit or strawberries as it needs something tart and fresh to counter balance all that sugar. I served the pavlovas with whipped cream, raspberries and a shard of bitter chocolate flecked with toasted coconut. 



If you'd like to make some mini pavlovas for the special people in your life, here's the recipe for you. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Mini pavlovas – makes 6

Ingredients
2 egg whites 
Pinch of salt
110 g (½ cup) caster sugar 
½ tsp white vinegar 
2 tsp cornflour 
½ tsp vanilla extract 
150 mls thickened cream, whipped 
1 punnet raspberries, washed and dried
Chocolate curls, if desired

Method
Preheat the oven (conventional) to 180°C/350°F. Line a flat baking tray with baking paper and using a 7 cm ramekin as your guide, mark out 6 circles on the paper. Flip the paper over and use this as your template.

In a large clean dry bowl, beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff. Add the caster sugar gradually, one heaped tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat for a further 5 minutes or until the sugar has completely dissolved and the meringue is white and fluffy. Stir in the vinegar, cornflour and vanilla essence.

Pile or pipe the meringue mixture onto the baking tray, keeping within the marked circles. Smooth the tops so they resemble flat cakes. 

Place the pavlovas in the oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 130°C/275°F or the lowest setting for your oven and bake for 1¼ - 1½ hours or until the pavlovas are dry and very lightly coloured. Turn the oven off and allow the pavlovas to cool completely in the switched off oven.



When cool, remove the pavlovas from the baking paper and store in an airtight container. Just before serving, top the pavlovas with the lightly whipped cream and berries and a shard of chocolate, if desired. 

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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plate 2 plate - jo rodgers chocolate hazelnut and rosemary pie

plate 2 plate - jo rodgers chocolate hazelnut and rosemary pie

8 Feb 2016

For this month's Plate 2 Plate post, Juliana suggested something chocolate flavoured in honour of Valentine's Day. I've only recently discovered instagram and in particular Jo Rodgers feed. When I saw these pictures of her Chocolate hazelnut and rosemary pie I thought I'd like to give the recipe a try.



Assembling the ingredients - photo by Juliana.





As a nod to Valentine's Day I couldn't help myself and dug out my heart shaped cutters. The rosemary I used in the pie came from a small rosemary bush in my garden.





Juliana and I both made some changes to the recipe. Juliana left the syrup out entirely whilst I reduced the quantity of sugar.





I haven't made pastry for a while and used my food processor to speed up the process. Jo's pastry was very easy to handle. Oops, just noticed that some-one (that would be me) can't spell hazelnut.





Here's Juliana's pie out of the oven ready to be cut.





I'm always worried that the filling won't set so I added a tablespoon of flour to the filling. I needn't have bothered because it came out fine.

Here's a nice slice of the pie courtesy of Juliana.





For the original recipe click here. I made some adjustments as I didn't have enough light corn syrup and as it's a hard to find product in Sydney, I used some dark corn syrup and some golden syrup as well. Golden syrup is much sweeter than corn syrup, so I reduced the sugar a little. I always use a tablespoon of flour in my pecan pie to firm the filling a little so I did the same here. I also found that my flour and caster sugar weighed more, so I've noted the weight of the flour and sugar that I used. 100 g of whole hazelnuts wasn't enough to fill my 8 inch pie tin so I halved the hazelnuts. If you use whole hazelnuts, I think you'd need about 200g to fill the pie tin. 

For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C

Jo Rodgers’ Chocolate, Hazelnut, and Rosemary Pie (adapted)

For the pastry
1½ cups (225g) plain flour
¼ tsp salt
115g/4oz cold butter, diced
60ml (¼ cup) cold water
1 tbs milk

For the filling
100-200 g (¾ - 1½ cup) whole hazelnuts
3 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup each light corn syrup, dark corn syrup and golden syrup or ¾ cup of your chosen syrup
¾ cup (165g) caster sugar
1 tbs plain flour
100g melted unsalted butter
Pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs chopped fresh rosemary
170g/6oz dark chocolate, chopped
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, for the top of the pie

To serve
Cream or mascarpone

Method
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour and salt. Add the diced cold butter and whiz for about 10 seconds or until the butter is pea sized. Tip out on to a flat surface, make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the cold water. Using your hands, mix the water into the flour until dough is formed. Otherwise, on a flat work surface, combine the flour and salt, then incorporate the cold diced butter with your fingers. Rub the butter into the flour until the butter pieces are no larger than the size of peas then continue as above. Wrap the pastry in plastic and put in the fridge for one hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Toast the hazelnuts in the oven until they begin to get fragrant, about 7 minutes. Let the hazelnuts cool, then rub off the skins; you can do this with your fingers or a cloth towel.

Grease an 8-9 inch pie plate. Roll out the dough wider than your pie tin. Gently lay the dough into the tin and trim the overhanging dough with a sharp knife. Put the pie tin back in the fridge while you make the filling.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine eggs, the syrups, sugar, flour, melted butter, salt, and vanilla extract. Stir in the chopped rosemary. Take the pie tin out of the refrigerator, and brush the edges of the dough with milk. This will help the pie to brown nicely.

Spread the chopped chocolate evenly over the bottom of the pie. Pour the filling over the chocolate then arrange the hazelnuts in concentric circles on top of the filling. If you halve the hazelnuts you'll need about 100g. If you use whole hazelnuts, you'll need about 200g to fill the pie tin. Place the single sprig of rosemary in the centre of the pie.

Bake the pie for 1 hour at 180°C/350°F or until the pie is browned and bubbling. Remove from the oven and let cool for one hour before serving. Serve with a dollop of mascarpone or cream.





The finished product from Juliana whilst mine is below.



This recipe was a bit of a challenge for me as it's the first time I've cooked pastry in my new oven. The oven is slow so I found I had to bake the pie for an hour before the filling had set. The verdict - the pie is delicious  and it went down a treat at work but I found it very sweet. Next time I'd reduce the sugar even more, maybe to ½ cup in total to offset the syrup and the chocolate. 

Thanks to Jo for the inspiration and for Juliana for continuing with Plate 2 Plate challenge.

Until next time,

Jillian

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valentine's day white chocolate and raspberry brownies

valentine's day white chocolate and raspberry brownies

9 Feb 2015

Valentine's Day kind of snuck up on me this year. I looked through my files and found these images I shot last year for my Delicious Bites column. The post failed to run so rather than languish on my hard drive, I thought I'd share the images and recipe with you. 

I've been making these brownies for quite some time now and each time I make them I change the recipe a little. Some times I add a bit more white chocolate or an extra egg. Sometimes I'll add a little less flour or mix up the berries a bit. It's raspberry season here in Sydney so that's what I used this time but you certainly don't need to use fresh raspberries for these brownies; frozen raspberries are just as good.  As fresh raspberries are so delicate, I stud the brownie mixture with the raspberries instead of mixing them into the batter.

If you like, the brownies can be made entirely in one bowl so there's not too much washing up. These brownies are definitely cake like brownies rather than fudgey brownies so don’t be tempted to take them out before they’re fully cooked or they'll just taste like raw cake batter.

Once the brownies are baked and cooled, I often cut them into shapes before drizzling with a little melted white chocolate. I normally use a round cutter but in honour of Valentine’s Day I got busy with my heart shaped cutter. They’re perfect to give as gifts or to share with the ones you love.

Here’s the recipe for you. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Brownies
Ingredients
⅔ cup plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
125g/4 oz unsalted butter
75g (2½ oz) white chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 eggs
½ cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen
¼ cup flaked almonds

To decorate
50 g (1¾ oz) white chocolate, melted

Method
Preheat oven to 350F°/180C°.

Line the base and sides of a 20 cm (8 in) square tin with baking paper.

Sift the flour with the baking powder into a small bowl and set to one side.

Melt the butter and the white chocolate in a large ovenproof bowl in the microwave or over a pan of simmering water.

Allow to cool a little before stirring in the eggs, sugar and vanilla. Beat lightly with a wooden spoon just till combined, then stir the flour into the mixture to make a batter.

Scatter about 1/3 of the raspberries over the base of the tin. Spread the batter into prepared pan. Press the remaining berries gently into the mixture then top with the flaked almonds.

Bake at 350F°/180C° (conventional oven) for 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

When cool, cut the brownies into 2 inch squares or cut into heart shapes before drizzling with the extra melted chocolate.

Allow the chocolate to set before serving.




I'll see you all again next week with the first Plate 2 Plate post for 2015.

Until then, Happy Valentine's Day!

Jillian

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broken hearted chocolate pavlova

broken hearted chocolate pavlova

10 Feb 2014

Hi every-one, I hope you all had great weekends. I did quite a bit of trip planning and when I wasn't chained to the computer, I was in the kitchen baking up a storm. One of the things I made was a chocolate pavlova for Valentine's Day. I've made this chocolate pavlova many times but until recently I'd never tasted it. It disappears so quickly, all I ever got to try were the crumbs. When I did taste it, I found the pavlova so sweet it was almost sickly. The pavlova also cracks like crazy and spreads far more than a regular pavlova. I think that might be due to the cocoa powder but I'm not really sure.



I've been working on trying to stop the pavlova from spreading so much so added some cornflour to the mixture. To reduce the sweetness I decided to leave out the grated chocolate 'cos sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.



To rein the pavlova in, I decided to bake it in a spring form tin instead of free form on a baking sheet. Well, look what happened.



The pavlova rose like crazy and then sank while cooling leaving this great crevasse. I went to bed mulling over what to do. Should I scrap it and start all over again or should I just embrace my failure and move on?



Well I'm made of sterner stuff than that, so I decided to create a shell from the pavlova and filled the centre with a cloud of gently whipped cream. I topped the cream with the chocolate hearts and raspberries that were my topping of choice for Valentine's Day accompanied by some of the chocolate meringue shards.



And so a new dessert was born. Here's my recipe for Chocolate Pavlova and it serves 8 - 10. If you want to make a broken hearted version, just bake it in a 23 cm springform tin lined with baking paper and crack open the top! P.S I had a little taste of it today and it tastes pretty good.

Ingredients
6 x 60 g egg whites, at room temperature

Pinch of salt

1½ cups caster sugar
2 20 ml tablespoons dutch process cocoa, sifted
1 20 ml tablespoon cornflour, sifted

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

To serve

500 ml cream
Seasonal berries

Chocolate curls/hearts

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (conventional oven). Draw a 22cm circle on baking paper and place on an oven tray.

2. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt in an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add caster sugar a tablespoon at a time until meringue is stiff and shiny.

3. Add the sifted cocoa and cornflour and the vinegar and lightly fold in with a metal spoon or spatula.

4. Spoon the meringue onto baking paper to form a 22cm circle and place in the oven. Immediately reduce the oven temperature to 135°C/275°F and bake for 1½ hours. Turn off the oven and allow the pavlova to cool with the oven door slightly ajar.

5. When completely cold, gently remove the pavlova from the baking paper and place on a flat serving platter. Beat the cream until it forms soft peaks and spread over the pavlova. Top with the berries and chocolate curls, if desired.



We're having a belated Valentine's Day morning tea at work next week so expect some more hearted shaped items to appear on the blog in the next short while.

Happy Valentine's Day for Friday,

See you all again soon,

Jillian

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hazelnut and chocolate hearts

hazelnut and chocolate hearts

13 Feb 2013

When I was at high school I used to work weekends in a flower shop called Twigs of Ascot. I loved working there and my favourite days were the busy days like Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. I can't tell you how many rose cylinders I filled on Valentine's Day topped with curly red ribbons. I wonder if rose cylinders are still in fashion?

Instead of red roses, I've gone a bit Miss Haversham this Valentine's Day with some well past their prime hydrangeas. That's what happens to hydrangeas when it's 46°C outside. 



For Valentine's Day, I knew exactly what I wanted to make - some very rich hazelnut and chocolate hearts.



I took out my heart shaped cutter and went a bit wild.



I can't remember the last time I made a chain of hearts.



The final product - some very chocolatey morsels, just perfect for Valentine's Day or when ever the need for chocolate strikes.



Here's the recipe for you, adapted from Maureen Simpson's book, Australian Cuisine.
Hazelnut and Chocolate Cakes
Base
3 egg whites
⅓ cup caster sugar
1 cup hazelnut meal
1 tablespoon potato flour (starch)

Topping
100 gm (3½ oz) dark chocolate, chopped
1½ tablespoons water
¼ level teaspoon instant coffee powder
90 gm (3 oz) unsalted butter
¼ cup caster sugar
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
Optional - cocoa powder

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line the base and sides of a 20 cm (8 inch) square tin with baking paper. In a medium size bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add the sugar until a stiff meringue forms. Fold through the hazelnut meal and the flour. Put into the prepared cake tin and gently spread the mixture evenly into the corners of the tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the mixture starts to shrink away from the edge of the tin.

While the cake is cooking, prepare the next layer. Melt the chopped chocolate with the water and the instant coffee in a small bowl over a basin of simmering water, then put to one side. Cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg yolks, the vanilla and the melted chocolate mixture. Pour the chocolate topping over the hazelnut sponge.

Return to the oven and bake for a further 20 - 30 minutes until the topping is just set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin before cutting into small squares or heart shapes, if desired. You can lightly dust these with cocoa powder before serving.

Happy Valentine's Day!

See you all again next week,


Jillian

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Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

14 Feb 2010

Hi Every-one,



just a quick note to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day. I'm leaving you with a sweet treat to enjoy, a chocolate ganache and raspberry tart. I'll be back tomorrow with the rest of the photos, meanwhile I'm off to watch the Winter Olympics on the telly.

Enjoy the rest of the day,

Jillian

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Happy Valentine's Day - Lime Yoghurt Tarts

Happy Valentine's Day - Lime Yoghurt Tarts

13 Feb 2009

A long time ago in a land far way, (Brisbane) I used to work in a florist shop. I was still at high school then and I just loved working there - I still think it was the best job I've ever had. My favourite days were the busy days like weddings, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. 

The traditional flowers for Valentine's Day are red roses though trying to keep red roses fresh in 30°+C Brisbane summer heat and 90% humidity was an impossible challenge. Although I love roses, red roses must be my least favourite colour. I've always been a pink girl, whilst my Mum loves yellow roses.



What has all this to do with Lime Yoghurt Tarts? Absolutely nothing! I discovered a recipe in a magazine for a lime tart that used yoghurt in the filling rather than cream. I love all things custard but can't tolerate cream so this seemed like the perfect recipe for me. With a barbecue to attend I thought I'd bake the tart for dessert and as there was leftover filling, I made a few individual tarts for home.


With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I just had to make a heart shaped tart which I'll be eating tomorrow night. And how was the tart? The lime flavour is strong, the filling creamy and not too rich and perfectly matched by the crisp almond shortcrust pastry.


Happy Valentine's Day every-one,

Jillian

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