V-Day recipes: Jam Tart Hearts, Valentine's biscuits

Valentine's Day Recipes from executive chef Sheriyar Rustom Dotivala of The Resort, Mumbai. 

Slice-and-bake Valentine's biscuits

Ingredients:

• 300 gm plain flour + a little extra for dusting
• 200 gm salted butter, diced
• 120 gm golden castor sugar
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp rosewater or 25 gm freeze-dried raspberries, whizzed to a powder
• Red or pink food colouring

Method:

• Tip the flour and butter into a food processor and grind to fine crumbs. Add the sugar and yolks then mix to a smooth dough. Remove one-third of the dough, add vanilla to what's left and pulse to whizz in. Wrap this dough in cling film and leave at room temperature.
• Put the reserved dough back in the processor with the rosewater or dried raspberries, if using, and a drop of food colouring. Pulse and add more colouring to achieve an intense colour. If the dough has become too soft, pulse in a few spoonfuls more flour until a similar consistency to the vanilla dough. Put the dough in the fridge, remembering to remove it 30 mins before you need to roll it out.
• Thickly roll out the coloured dough between baking parchment. Use a small 3-4 cm heart cutter to stamp out hearts. Keep re-rolling and stamping until all the dough is used. Line up hearts on top of each other and press to form a cylinder, taking care to retain the heart shape. Wrap in cling film and freeze for 3 hours until solid.
• When the heart dough is hard, roll the vanilla dough, using your hands, into 3 cylinders (the length of the heart stack). Stick one to each side of the hearts, pat together to form a fat cylinder, then gently roll on your work surface until it completely encircles the coloured dough, with the frozen heart dough hidden in the center. Chill for 2 hours. Heat oven to 180°C.
• Use a sharp knife to slice the log into 1 cm thick discs. Place on trays lined with baking parchment, allowing space for spreading, and bake for 20 mins. Cool on wire racks. You can keep it for up to 4 days in an airtight container.

Jam Tart Hearts

Ingredients:

• 250 gm plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 125 gm butter, chilled and diced, plus extra for the tin
• 1 medium egg
• 1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped (optional)
• 100 gm jam, fruit curd or marmalade of your choice

Method:

• Put the flour, butter and a pinch of salt in a bowl and rub them together with your fingertips (or you can pulse these ingredients together in a food processor if you have one). When the mixture looks and feels like fresh breadcrumbs, stir in the egg and vanilla seeds, if using, with a cutlery knife. Add 1 tbsp cold water, then start to bring the dough together in one lump with your hands -- try not to knead it too much. Add 1 more tbsp of water if it's not coming together, but try not to add more water. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.
• Heat oven to 200°C butter in a 12-hole tart tin. Dust your work surface with flour. Unwrap and roll out the chilled pastry so it's about the thickness of a one rupee coin, then use a straight or fluted round cutter to cut out 12 circles, big enough to line the holes in the tin. Dollop 1-2 tsp of your chosen filling into each hole and, if you like, cut out little pastry hearts (perfect for Valentine's Day) and pop them on top. Bake for 15-18 mins or until golden and the filling is starting to bubble a little. Leave to cool in the tin for a few mins then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Dark chocolate pudding with malted cream

Ingredients: 

For the pudding:

• 60 gm butter
• Butter + extra for the ramekins
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 100 gm (70 per cent dark chocolate)
• Dark chocolate soup pots with double cream in spoons
• 2 eggs
• 100 gm castor sugar
• ½ tsp malt powder

For the cream:

• 100 ml double cream
• 2 tbsp Muscovado sugar
• 1 tbsp malt powder

To serve:

• 3 glace cherries, cut in half
• 1 tbsp chopped salted pistachios

Method:

• Butter three ramekins, dust with cocoa and set aside. Heat oven to 200°C. Melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy, then whisk in the chocolate mixture with the malt powder and a pinch of salt. Divide the mixture between the ramekins and bake for 14 mins until they are just cooked with a slight wobble in the middle to make a fondant, or 18 mins for a pudding. Remove from the oven, turn out and serve warm now, or leave to cool in their ramekins.
• Whisk the cream, sugar and malt powder together to soft peaks. Carefully turn the puddings out onto plates, cherries and pistachios, and serve with the malted cream.