These delectable love-note pastries, not only suitable for Valentine's, but also for snacks, desserts, and breakfasts, are simple to make. At first try, the notes most likely won't be perfectly sealed and presented, mine certainly weren't, but they look adorable enough. Since I always freeze pastry scraps left from making pies, I just had to defrost my home-made dough. Good quality from the shops would work fine also.
Preheat oven to 190 degrees C/375 degrees F. Lightly flour your surface and roll out the pastry. Thinner means neater love notes since they will puff up less than thicker pastry. In any case, we are talking a range of .32 -.64 cm (1/8-1/4 inch). The notes regardless can be pricked all over with the tines of a fork before placing in the oven to discourage the formation of bubbles. As a template to cut pastry squares, I used a plastic container's 10 cm/4 inch lid.
Position each square as to present a diamond shape. Place jam in centre. Less jam means more behaved notes. More jam is tastier but also results in messier notes. I went for more jam and I don't regret it. Fold the lateral points towards the centre, without overlapping too much.
Fold the bottom point towards the other two points. Seal with a heart. Lightly press down to ensure contact among the various overlapping layers of pastry. Coat with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Again if presentation is important to you, then brushing the edges of the pastry which touch each other with egg wash will assist in their remaining closed while being baked.
To make hearts, I folded small squares of pastry and traced with a knife without slicing through the fold, a half of a heart. I carefully cut around that half, then . . .
. . . opened the square and removed the heart.
Bake for fifteen minutes on a lined baking sheet.
They taste wonderful with coffee, tea, or milk. Served warm or cold, they are delicious. They freeze well also. I now know what the next batch of pastry scraps will be used for!
À la prochaine!
makes four pastries, recipe can be doubled
- Shortcrust pastry, 1 crust, store-bought or homemade
- Jam, raspberry or strawberry, heaping teaspoon for each note
- Sugar to sprinkle
- Egg wash (one egg beaten well)
- Flour for dusting
Preheat oven to 190 degrees C/375 degrees F. Lightly flour your surface and roll out the pastry. Thinner means neater love notes since they will puff up less than thicker pastry. In any case, we are talking a range of .32 -.64 cm (1/8-1/4 inch). The notes regardless can be pricked all over with the tines of a fork before placing in the oven to discourage the formation of bubbles. As a template to cut pastry squares, I used a plastic container's 10 cm/4 inch lid.
Position each square as to present a diamond shape. Place jam in centre. Less jam means more behaved notes. More jam is tastier but also results in messier notes. I went for more jam and I don't regret it. Fold the lateral points towards the centre, without overlapping too much.
Fold the bottom point towards the other two points. Seal with a heart. Lightly press down to ensure contact among the various overlapping layers of pastry. Coat with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Again if presentation is important to you, then brushing the edges of the pastry which touch each other with egg wash will assist in their remaining closed while being baked.
To make hearts, I folded small squares of pastry and traced with a knife without slicing through the fold, a half of a heart. I carefully cut around that half, then . . .
. . . opened the square and removed the heart.
Bake for fifteen minutes on a lined baking sheet.
They taste wonderful with coffee, tea, or milk. Served warm or cold, they are delicious. They freeze well also. I now know what the next batch of pastry scraps will be used for!
À la prochaine!