Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Experimental Hearts





 



I found a Vegan frozen sweet short pastry in the supermarket, and I wanted to try it. Actually, I like making short pastry, but making Vegan short pastry is not that easy (for me) so I was really curious.




Because the pastry is already rolled it was easy to cut it with a cookie cutter, and I opted for hearts.







Up to here everything was fine, but then the pastry shrunk in the oven! My pretty fat hearts became long quirky hearts! Did this ever happen to you?


My solution: transform the hearts into pretty-quirky-modern-art hearts with some glossy icing. I did the borders white first, and then I coloured some icing with saffron powder for yellow (this also gave the biscuits a lovely saffron aroma and flavour), cocoa for chocolate, and then I added a drop of red food colouring to the yellow saffron icing for a geranium orange/red. The colour reminded me of lipstick and nail polish, but I liked it! The kids took the biscuits to the Surf Life Saving Club and they were all eaten happily, but next time I think that I will stick to my own pastry :-).






Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

28 comments:

  1. Weird that the pastry shrunk, but at least you did find a pretty trick with those colourful iced hearts.

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  2. I think they look cute like that :) I think if you let the hearts rest a while before baking they may have shrunk less but I'm really not sure :|

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  3. Diciamo che l'esperimentom ti è riuscito, alla fine ti sono venuti bene, buona giornata, ciao.

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  4. esperimento deludente, come si dice? non lasciar la strada vecchia per la nuova ^_____^ ciauzzzzz
    P.S. ti ho mandato una mail

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  5. a me sembrano molto carini...buona giornata

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  6. Carini son carini, se voglio i cuori 'allungti' adesso so cosa fare hahaha!

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  7. ma si che sono carini!! poi, come ho appena detto più in là, sono quasi noiose le cose troppo perfette. In cucina , come ovunque, è fondamentale saper usare fantasia e trasformare un risultato non proprio brillante in un'altra cosa, magari più fascinosa!! ciao

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  8. I cuori si sono ritirati in cottura? beh, se non l'avessi detto non ce ne saremmo accorti ;-)
    E li hai decorati in modo delizioso!

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  9. Ciao!!! mi ha bruciato sul tempo x i commenti . . .I ♥ these cookies! LOL

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  10. Cuoricini bellissimi. Un abbraccio.

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  11. You make lovely hearts. Adding saffron for colour is a great idea! Colours of lipstick and nail polish? Yes, you are right!

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  12. I think you have a problem-solving gift!

    kisses

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  13. Your shrinken hearts are delicious! The decoration are superb, the saffron one must be delicious to taste!
    Next time I'll try it.
    Thanks

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  14. molto belli i tuoi cuoricini! ideali per regalini romantici, ma anche per pensierini di fine cena per gli ospiti! Un bacione! :-)

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  15. That was quick thinking on your part. They look beautiful and no one would know you had a problem with them. I hope you have a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  16. beh grazie per l'apprezzamento!
    un bacio
    mari

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  17. Nicely decorated hearts looks awesome.

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  18. Nice way to save the cookies.They look so cute.

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  19. @ Eleonora, thanks, I hope so, same for Mary, it seems that quick thinking is what I have to do far too often (and not only in the kitchen ;-) these days!

    But I need to work on my 'quick tongue' too, in reverse :-).

    @ Fabipasticcio, yes, the saffron is great, it reminded me of the lovely saffron biscuits and sweets that the make in Sardinia.

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  20. These are adorable!!! I love wonkie hearts...and they are not that wonkie at all. xoxoxo
    Hugs.

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  21. That's shocking! But they turned out really nice!!!

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  22. Direi che hai fatto di necessità virtù..davvero un ottimo lavoro, come sempre!bacione

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  23. Lovely hearts, Alessandra, elongated or not. Maybe chilling the cut dough before baking might have prevented the shrinking? Either way, they are charming!

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  24. sono deliziosi questi cuoricini Alessandra! un bacione...

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  25. They look good Ale, bet the surfers loved them!

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  26. Yep Jo, they did :-)!

    @ Barbara, the dough has been defrosted at room temperature, cut and placed into the oven, and it was still quite cold. I think the fact is that instead of butter the Vegan recipe must have had some vegan shortening (certainly not olive oil!) which make the pastry shrink with heat.

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