To your heart’s content
Flowers may be de rigour on Valentine’s Day but it would be best not to forget the adage that “the way to your lover’s heart is through his or her stomach”. So for this Valentine’s Day, why not roll up your sleeves and do something different? The couple of recipes we’ve lined up for Valentine’s Day are quite different from each other though they seem similar at first glance. The V-day red hot cookie is actually spicy while the strawberry shortcake is all cream and full of love.
V-day spicy cookies
Sugar and spice and everything nice” is indeed the ideal recipe for V-day food, but these cookies come with a twist. They are all spice, with just a hint of sweetness. The original recipe calls for “red hot candies” a brand available in the US but we prefer a bit of nutmeg and Tabasco for that desi twist.
Ingredients
½ cup butter at room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp Tabasco sauce
1 cup caster sugar
1½ cups flour
3 drops red food colouring
Method
Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Sift together the flour and baking powder and set aside. In a large non metallic bowl, mix the butter, egg, vanilla extract, food colouring, salt, caster sugar, Tabasco and nutmeg powder. Add the flour and baking powder mix. The batter should be a nice red colour, if the desired colour is not achieved add another drop of food colouring. Form into 1 inch balls and lightly flatten them.
Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with butter paper and bake for around 12 minutes.
Cupid-struck strawberry shortcake
You will need to have a nice sponge cake prepared in advance for this recipe. It can either be bought readymade or made from scratch at home. To ensure that the shortcake is delicious, ensure that the strawberries and cream used are absolutely fresh.
Ingredients
400 gm fresh strawberries, each washed and cut in half
½ cup sugar
1 cup caster sugar
250 gm cream cheese at room temperature
250 gm whipped cream
1 sponge cake (roughly 500 gm), cut into cubes
Method
Place the strawberries in a plastic bowl and toss in the sugar (not the caster sugar), mix well and chill in the refrigerator.
Mix the cream cheese and caster sugar thoroughly and fold in the whipped cream and sponge cake. In a large glass bowl (like a pie dish) layer the cake and cream cheese mix and cover and chill for around 2 ½ hours. Before serving, add the strawberries on top and cut into squares and serve. You can also cut the cake first and add the strawberries on the individual portions before serving.
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