Triple Threat Tasty Tuesday – Valentine’s Day Edition

Ingredients:

• 2 oz pomegranate juice (12 oz total for 6 drinks)
• 3 oz champagne (1 750ml bottle is about 25 ounces for 6 drinks) .
• pomegranate seeds (optional)
• raspberries (optional)
• sugar for rim (optional)

Directions:

1. Pour pomegranate juice in a champagne flute.
2. Add champagne and pomegranate seeds if desired. Serve immediately.

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 1/3 cup basil pesto
• 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured board until it’s  an approximately 1/8 inch thick rectangle.
3. Spread the pesto thinly over the pastry to all four edges.
4. Sprinkle the cheese over the entire thing.
5. Roll up one of the long sides of the rectangle 2-3 times until you reach the center, then repeat with the other side.  Don’t roll too tight.
6. Cut the roll into approximately 1/3 inch wheels and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes until palmiers are golden brown.
8.  Cool on rack until room temperature.  Makes 24 palmiers.

Ingredients:

• 24 Oreo cookies-crushed into fine crumbs
• 5 oz. softened cream cheese
• 12-14 oz. high-quality white chocolate (you can use white chocolate candy coating or vanilla almond bark)
• Heart shaped sprinkles-optional

1. Line a tray with baking paper.
2. Crush whole Oreos with the filling in really fine crumbs and combine it with softened cream cheese.
3. You can do this by hands, press it with a back of the spoon, or use a mixer with paddle attachment(the mixture is really thick and I prefer to knead it by hand).
4. When it’s all evenly combined transfer the mixture onto baking paper and spread it in an even layer about 1/2 inch thick (or more, depending on how large is your cookie cutter).
5. Place the tray in the freezer for 45 mins (or more) until it’s hardened enough for cutting.
6. Cut out the truffles with heart-shaped cookie cutter and place them back in the freezer for 20-30 mins(truffles must be frozen before dipping into chocolate).
7. Line another tray with baking paper and set aside.
8. Take a few hearts from the freezer ( so the rest won’t soften while you are working) and dip one frozen hearts at the time into melted chocolate with a fork. Tap off the excess chocolate and transfer the hearts onto baking paper and top with sprinkles (if you don’t want to dip them twice in the chocolate). If you want to cover the truffles with the second layer of chocolate( like I did), then after first dipping into chocolate, place chocolate covered hearts in the freezer to harden the chocolate faster and repeat the dipping process, and then top with sprinkles.
9. Work in small batches because the heart must be frozen when placing them into melted chocolate.
10. Store in an airtight container in the fridge(or freezer for longer storage).
11. This recipe makes 16-20 small (about1.5 inch) hearts.

Thank you to all our wonderful Blogs for these romantically delicious recipes. Pomegranate Champagne Cocktail (www.theadventurebite.com), Puff Pastry Palmiers (pie-o-my.blogspot.com) Oreo Truffle Hearts (www.omgchocolatedesserts.com)