VALENTINE PASTRY

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day yesterday! 💝

This is one of my all-time favourite Swedish pastries! And this particular version, the Valentine pastry, is perfect for this week. 

The Valentine pastry is a version of the Catalan pastry, which is a version of what we Swedes call the "mazarin" pastry. The difference between them is that the catalan contains raspberry jam, while the Valentine version has strawberry cordial and strawberry jam. The original mazarin has neither jam nor cordial concentrate, but is equally delicious! All three versions are composed of 3 parts: shortcrust pastry, almond paste filling and icing/glaze. 

It was my dad who sent me the link to various Valentine recipes the other day and this one caught my attention right away and brought me down memory lane of my childhood. These days, whenever I visit Sweden, I ALWAYS make sure to eat AT LEAST 1 mazarin or catalan. But now that I have a recipe (thanks Internet!), I can make them myself anytime I want to! 🙌

Fun fact: This dessert has been around since the 17th/18th century in Sweden, and the Swedes have two official mazarin days: January 10th and March 13th. 😁 

https://www.expressen.se/alltommat/recept/bakelse-valentinbakelse/

Enjoy! 💗Helena

INGREDIENTS: (25 pastries)

Crust:

• 100 grams butter
• 3 dl (300 ml) all-purpose flour
• ½ dl (50 ml) sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 1 tablespoon strawberry cordial concentrate 
  

Filling:

• 250 grams almond paste (see recipe below)
• 125 grams butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon strawberry cordial concentrate 
  

Icing:

• 0.5 dl (50 ml) strawberry jam
• 2¼ dl (225 ml) icing sugar
• 1½ tablespoon water 
  
  
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Crust: Mix all crust ingredients into a dough. The less the dough is kneaded, the softer the cakes become. Press the dough with your fingers into a 5 mm thick shell in greased "mazarin pastry" molds, approx. 6 cm in diameter. Place the molds on a baking tray. 
   
   
   
    

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   
   
   
2. Filling: Set the oven to 200°C. Roughly grate the almond paste. Mix in butter and stir by hand or with an electric mixer until it becomes a smooth batter. Add one egg at a time and the egg white. Whisk to a smooth batter. Add the strawberry cordial. 
   
   
   
   

   
   
   

   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Fill the molds with the batter 1 cm from the edge. Bake them in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool before removing them from the tins. 
   
   
   
   
   

   
   
   

   
   
   
4. Icing: Spread strawberry jam onto the cakes. Sift the icing sugar into a saucepan. Add the water and heat to 40°C. Spread the icing on the pastries. If the glaze solidifies before spreading it, heat it again with a little more water. 
    

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

   

ALMOND PASTE:

INGREDIENTS:

• 125 grams almonds (peeled)
• 1¼ dl (125 ml) sugar
• 1 bitter almond (blanched, peeled and grated)
• A bit of water, if needed 
  
  
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix the almonds in a food processor to crumbs. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Add the sugar and continue to mix until it’s a paste. If necessary, add a little water if the paste is too dry. 
   
   
   
   
   
3. Add the grated bitter almond, and a few drops of essence if more almond flavour is desired.