Heart-shaped desserts

Heart-shaped desserts make Valentine’s Day extra special. Love cookies? Homemade linzer hearts with raspberry filling are sure to please.

Prefer cake? Hearts will flutter at the sight of chef Bob Imperial’s twist on strawberry shortcake with Chambord.

“Chambord a raspberry and blackberry liqueur. It just goes so well with the strawberry. It complements the strawberry and vanilla bean,” explained the owner of Imperial’s Catering in Trappe. “It adds a littlemore flavor and a little more color – that ruby red.”

Linzer Hearts

INGREDIENTS

½ cup blanched hazelnuts, toasted and skinned ½ cup granulated sugar, divided 1cup (2sticks) unsalted butter, softened 1large egg yolk 2cups all-purpose flour 1teaspoon finely grated lemon zest 1teaspoon vanilla extract 1/8 teaspoon salt Raspberry filling: ½ cup seedless raspberry preserves ½ cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting

INSTRUCTIONS

Making the dough: Place the hazelnuts and ¼ cup of sugar in a food processor and process until finely ground — about 45 seconds. But be careful not to overgrind and make a paste. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer using the paddle attachment, beat the butter with the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar at medium speed until light - about 1minute. Add the egg yolk and beat until blended. Add the ground hazelnut mixture, flour, lemon zest, vanilla extract and salt. Mix on a low speed just until combined. Scrape dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, flatten into a disk, wrap tightly and refrigerate for about 2hours or until firm enough to handle. Cut and bake the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 Surprise your Valentine with raspberry-filled linzer hearts. degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Place half of the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle the top of the dough lightly with flour. With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough to a thickness of 1/8-inch — flouring more, if needed, to keep the dough from sticking. Using a 2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can, rerolling the scraps. Place half the cookies on one baking sheet and half on another. Use a tiny aspic cutter and cut out a middle shape on the cookies on one baking sheet. Bake for 12to 14minutes until they are lightly golden brown around the edges. Cool on the baking sheet for about 10minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to completely cool. Assembling the cookies: Place the confectioners’ sugar in a fine-meshed sieve and liberally sprinkle the tops of the cookies with the cutout. Spoon about ½ teaspoon of raspberry preserves* onto the middle of each whole cookie and place the sugar dusted cut-out cookie on top. Makes about 30heart sandwiches *Be sure to stir up the preserves, so they spread fairly smoothly on the cookie base. RECIPE COURTESY OF EXECUTIVE

CHEF BRENDA KIEFFER

The Red Rocket Strawberry Shortcake Yields 6servings

CAKE INGREDIENTS

2/3 cup of superfine sugar ¼ teaspoon salt ½ cup of cake flour 6egg whites 1/3 cup of water ½ vanilla bean (with a knife,

split the pod and scrape half of the bean) ¾ teaspoon of creamof tartar

EQUIPMENT:

6(3-inch or bigger) heartshaped metal cookie cutters Pan spray 1cookie sheet

INSTRUCTIONS

Prepare the angel food cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, add egg whites, water, vanilla bean and cream of tartar. With a hand mixer, mix until medium peaks form (about 3minutes). Add sugar a little at a time. Using a spatula fold in the cake flour. Place heart-shaped cookie cutters on sheet pan and spray hearts with pan spray. Spoon in cake mixture 2/3 theway up to the top of cookie cutter. Place in oven and bake 25minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. To make the strawberry filling, first prepare the simple syrup with Chambord.

INGREDIENTS

½ cup sugar ½ cupwater 2tablespoons of Chambord 3cup of strawberries, washed Place sugar, water and Chambord in a saucepan and stir to make sure the sugar has dissolved. Simmer for 4minutes and remove from heat allow to cool slightly Remove tops of strawberries and slice strawberries into about ½-inch pieces. Toss in cooled simple syrup. Drain strawberries from simple syrup. Remove cake from cookie cutter and place strawberries on top of angel food cake. Serve with vanilla bean whipped cream.

INGREDIENTS

½ cup of heavy whipping cream ½ vanilla bean (with a knife, split the pod and scrape half of the bean) ½ cup superfine sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

Place in bowl andwhipwith a whisk until thick. Place a tablespoon on top of strawberry shortcake. RECIPE COURTESY OF IMPERIAL’S

CATERING