Raspberry-Chocolate Puff Pastries- A Sweetheart for Your Sweetheart

With Valentine's Day approaching, I thought it might be nice to develop a recipe that had all the components of a Valentine's Day. Nobody thinks about Valentine's Day and doesn't think about chocolate, so I knew it had to have chocolate as a component. I wanted a red component, as well as, something that paired well with chocolate. A raspberry based filling fit both bills. Cutting the puff pastry into hearts just puts the finishing touch on the idea.

Ingredients

2 sheets of frozen puff pastry dough

6 ounces of raspberries

1 cup of water

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

2 tablespoons of corn starch

1 tablespoon of confectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Thaw the puff pastry as directed on the packaging.

In a sauce pan, dissolve the granulated sugar and corn starch in a mixture of water and lemon juice. Add the raspberries and crush with a spoon or potato masher. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes until it reduces by 1/3 and thickens.

Set the berry mixture aside to cool and continue to thicken.

Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut the puff pastry dough. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Fill with the raspberry filling. Dust with the confectioner's sugar and the cocoa powder.

Using a medium sized cookie cutter this should yield about a dozen pastries.