These lightly spiced biscuits are speckled with small chunks of candied peel and have a slightly citrus taste. They’re originally from Cornwall – a ‘fairing’ was anything given out at a fair – biscuit, goldfish, trinket or anything else.
Thin, chewy cookies with crunchy M&Ms melted inside. I also added some heart sprinkles since were on the run up to Valentines day.
Bite sized puff pastry tarts filled with baked custard. These are similar to Portuguese egg custard tarts, but sometimes the Portuguese version has more spices and a Brulee topping. This Hong Kong (Macau) variant has a plainer, more custardy flavour which soaks into the crust during baking making it soft. The custard is quick and easy to make – just mix all of the uncooked ingredients together and bake. Any leftover custard can be baked in a ramekin.
White chocolate cookies with raspberry cheesecake inside?! Sounds crazy but it actually works. Put your hesitations aside when you bake these – they look messy before baking but the oven forgivesall and they come out speckled with gooey cheesecake filling.
Chocolate, cherries and almonds in one neat package. Perfect for Valentines day and easy to down a couple without thinking. There are a couple of recipes for a glaze below, use one or the other (or half and half), but don’t try to use both on the same donut.
Chocolate cookies with while chocolate chips. These were baked from room temperature so they were big, flat and chewy. If you prefer them thicker and crunchy, chill the dough after rolling into balls.
Nothing says “you’ve got no Valentine” like a heart shaped cherry pie which bleeds cherry juice when you bite into it. I doubled this recipe for the pictures and made half with pastry flour and half with whole wheat flour. There’s about 1 tablespoon of cherry filling in each heart shaped pie.
Frangipane and raspberry jam filled tarts with hearts on top for Valentines Day. These are quick to make and look great.
Red velvet cake is red due to (in addition to red food colouring) a chemical reaction between buttermilk, vinegar and cocoa. If there’s no vinegar in the recipe it’s not real red velvet, just vanilla sponge cake with food colouring. These are the genuine version and have a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. They have a slight red tinge, but the cocoa powder makes them closer to deep brown than bright red.
Scotland has some well known desserts, but choice is fairly limited. Anything with oats or whisky is usually associated with Scotland, as are deep fried mars bars and Scotland’s version of the Eton Mess. Unlike most truffles, these are cream free. They’re held together with dried apricots and coconut oil.
