Edible Valentines

Here’s a quick and easy way to say “I love you” to the special person in your life. I’ve collaborated with the “Cat” in my house, who happens to enjoy cooking in his spare time. I’m responsible for the Chocolate Almond Bark Recipe and he’s responsible for this vibrant, all-natural glaze. By all natural, I’m proud to say there are no artificial colors or flavors. The color and flavor come from the vibrant red raspberries I picked up at the farmers market. We had a lot of fun making these delicious looking hearts.

Start by whipping up a batch of my No-bake White Chocolate Almond Bark. Don’t worry, it’s VERY easy. Once you’ve made it, put it in the fridge for about 10 minutes until it sets up.

Time to make the glaze. I used 12 oz of fresh raspberries to give it flavor and zing. The raspberries are a bit sour which is good because it helps to balance the sweetness of the white chocolate in the bark. Put the berries and a quarter cup of water in a food processor and pulverize for about 30 seconds. If you don’t have a food processor, a simple food chopper works or you can pulverize by hand. You won’t get an equal richness in flavor but the glaze still tastes pretty good.

Once the berries are turned to paste, it’s time to strain out the juice. I own a tiny strainer that I put over the open top of a one cup glass measuring cup. Fill the strainer almost full of raspberry pulp. Use a teaspoon to stir the mixture. Round and round you go. The juice will flow in a steady stream until you begin to clearly see the berry seeds. I don’t recommend pressing your spoon into the strainer because this will warp the strainer and you will get very few additional droplets at this point. Transfer the pulp to another small dish for disposal.

You should have about 3/4 to 1 cup of juice, give or take. Combine this thick raspberry juice with 6 oz of pineapple juice. If you’re not afraid of raspberry seeds, the leftover pulp can be sweetened up with a little sugar or honey and used as a topping for toast or pancakes.

Put a mid-size frying pan on the stove and turn it on medium-high heat. Put a quarter cup of sugar and 2.5 tablespoons of cornstarch in the pan. Stir it up with a spatula and then slowly add the raspberry juice mixture. Stir until all the lumps have dissolved. Once the mixture starts bubbling, reduce the heat to low and continue stirring constantly with the spatula. I like to start at the edge and push the spatula to the middle of the pan. I do this all the way around the pan. This helps if the oven heats unevenly. I’ve noticed that the left side of my pan always heats up quicker than the right side. If I’m not careful, this part will burn first.

After a bit, the mixture begins thickening and I push the thickened bits to the middle. It’s not that much different from how I scramble an egg. Just keep pushing the coagulated bits to the middle of the pan until it is all thickened. After everything has coagulated, keep heating it for about another minute and then kill the stove. Remove the glaze from the heat. It will continue to thicken as it cools.

Pour the glaze over the cold bark while it is still quite warm and runny. Spread it out with a spatula and then return it to the refrigerator to set up. I’d give it 15 minutes. Once it has set up, remove the pan from the refrigerator. Take the wax paper by the long edges and carefully lift the bars out of the pan onto the cutting surface. Pull the wax paper away from the edges of the bark. Cut the bark into serving size pieces. I used a medium sized heart cookie cutter. The only hiccup I ran into was sometimes the bark gets stuck in the cookie cutter. There’s an easy fix. Just take a butter knife and gently insert it at the inside edge of the cookie cutter and push down. Usually once on each side is enough to loosen it and bring it out.

Keep these delicious morsels refrigerated if not planning to eat immediately. As unlikely a problem as that is. These are unlikely to last the evening.