Last minute Valentines Day dessert recipes

Heart Cookies

Are you pressed for time and yet want to make amazing dessert for your beloved? Check out some of the amazing last minute dessert recipes by Dhawal Shah, Chief Patissier, The Dessert Street that are quick and easy to make.

Heart Cookies
Ingredients:
281g all-purpose flour
5g baking powder
1g salt
170g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
150g granulated sugar
15g egg replacer + 20g warm milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
optional for added flavor: 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Royal Icing
480g confectioners' sugar, sifted
6-7 Tablespoons room temperature water
Soft Gel Paste Color Kit for coloring

Directions:

• Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
• In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the granulated sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2 minutes. Add the egg replacer mix, vanilla, and almond extract (if using) and beat on high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl and beat again as needed to combine.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until combined. If the dough seems too soft, you can add 1 Tablespoon more flour until it is a better consistency for rolling.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal parts. Roll each portion out onto a piece of parchment paper or a lightly floured silicone baking mat (I prefer the nonstick silicone mat) to about 1/4″ thickness. The rolled-out dough can be any shape, as long as it is evenly ¼-inch thick.
• Stack the pieces, with parchment paper between the two, onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for at least 1-2 hours and up to 2 days. If chilling for more than a couple hours, cover the top dough piece with a single piece of parchment paper.
• Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Remove one of the dough pieces from the refrigerator and using a heart cookie cutter, cut into heart shapes. Re-roll the remaining dough and continue cutting until all is used. Repeat with 2nd dough piece.
• Bake for 10-11 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Make sure you rotate the baking sheet halfway through bake time. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.

Make the icing:

• In a large bowl using a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat all of the icing ingredients together on high speed for 5 minutes. When lifting the whisk up off the icing, the icing should drizzle down and smooth out within 10-12 seconds. If it's too thick, add a little more water. If it's too thin, add a little more sifted confectioners' sugar. Separate icing into 6 different bowls. Stir in 1 tiny drop of the following colors into each bowl, 1 color per bowl: pink, violet, green, yellow, and orange. The 6th bowl is for the writing. Use 2-3 drops of red.
• Add icing to piping bag fitted with round icing tip. Decorate cookies with colored icing. Use round small icing tip for writing. Do not cover cookies as icing sets. Icing will set within 4-6 hours.
• Decorated or plain cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Granola Bars

Granola Bar Recipe
Ingredients
250g old fashioned rolled oats
60g nuts, roughly chopped
100g cup honey
50g cup unsalted butter
60g brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
150g total extra mix-ins (different ingredients such as dried fruits, coconut, chocolate chips, etc.)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch square baking dish with parchment or foil and lightly spray with cooking spray.
• Place the oats and nuts on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes until lightly toasted. Place the nuts and oats in a large bowl.
• While the oats are toasting, add the honey, butter, and brown sugar to a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. When butter mixture is ready, remove it from the heat and stir in the vanilla and salt. Pour this mixture over the oat and nut mixture and stir to combine. Add any extra ingredients (except for chocolate) and stir to combine. Make sure none of the oats are dry.
• If you are adding chocolate, wait about 15 minutes for the mixture to cool a bit before adding the chocolate and then stirring to combine.
• Place all of the oat mixture in the prepared pan. Use a rubber spatula or the bottom of a greased measuring cup to press the mixture into the pan. Chill the granola bars for at least 2 hours. Lift the bars from the pan using the edges of the foil or parchment and place them on a cutting board. Cut into heart shape using the heart cutter and serve.

Heart Shaped Macarons

Ingredients :
70 grams almond meal/flour, room temp
120 grams confectioners (powdered) sugar
2 large egg whites(65 grams), room temp
50 grams granulated sugar
Red or Pink GEL food coloring

For the Lemon Buttercream:
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g confectioners (powdered) sugar
âÂu00c2u0085Âu00c2u009b tsp salt
30g fresh lemon juice

Instructions
How to Make Heart Macarons:

• In the bowl of a food processor, add 70 gm almond flour and 120 gm powdered sugar. Pulse twice then process 1½ min. Sift and discard any solids (should be less than 1 Tbsp solids in sieve).
• Put 2 egg whites in large clean/dry mixing bowl and beat until foamy, then gradually add granulated sugar and beat on high speed about 2½ minutes or until stiff glossy peaks form. Add red gel food coloring and fold with spatula just until incorporated.
• Add all sifted almond flour/sugar mixture and fold with spatula using this method: scrape batter around the bowl, then press the flat side of the spatula firmly through the center. Repeat until batter flows like lava and thick ribbon forms as it flows off spatula.
• Place on 2 baking sheets under silicone liners or parchment paper. Transfer batter to large piping bag fitted with round tip. For each heart, pipe at the top left and pull down towards the bottom center then pipe at the top right and pull down towards the bottom center and flick the end up if it gets long.
• Firmly tap baking sheets over counter to release air bubbles. Poke any remaining obvious bubbles with toothpick. Let cookies sit at room temp 2 hours - they should form a thin film on top. preheat oven to 140ËÂu00c2u009aC.
• Bake one sheet at a time for 12-15 min at 140ËÂu00c2u009aC. Let macarons cool to room temp before removing them from baking sheet. Once cool, they should slide off easily. Meanwhile make buttercream.
• To assemble, flip over half your macarons andpipe generous amounts of frosting onto the flat sides, piping in a heart shape.
• How to Make Lemon Buttercream:
• In a medium mixing bowl, cream softened butter on high speed for 2 mins.
• Add slowly powdered sugar (1/2 cup at a time and beating to incorporate between additions), along with âÂu00c2u0085Âu00c2u009b tsp of salt and once sugar is incorporated, increase to high speed and beat 2 mins.
• Add 2 Tbsp lemon juice and beat another 1 minute or until whipped and fluffy. Transfer to the same clean piping bag fitted with the round âÂu00c2u0085Âu00c2u009c" tip.

Heart Shaped Brownies
Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup dark cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a quarter sheet pan (9"x13") with parchment paper. You can use office binder clips to clamp the parchment paper taut against the sides of the baking sheet. Otherwise, you can use softened butter to grease the sheet very well, but note that you will need to use a spatula to help you wedge the brownies out of the pan still once they've finished baking.
• In a large bowl, whisk the sugar and oil together until combined. Add in the eggs and give the mixture a whisk to incorporate the eggs. Add the vanilla and give it a quick whisk to combine.
• Add in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Whisk everything together until it's all blended together and you've got a smooth batter.
• Pour the batter into the prepared baking sheet, using a rubber spatula to scrap the batter out of the bowl and smooth out the batter in the baking sheet. You want one even layer.
• Bake the brownies for 20 minutes. Remove the brownies from the oven and let them cool completely. Once cool, use 3" to 3.5" heart-shaped cutters to cut out 6 hearts from the brownie sheet.

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