Valentine’s heart

Stir the quark together with the sugar in a mixer until smooth. Then add the lime juice, lime zest and the cooked vanilla cream. Process everything into a homogeneous mass. Leave to cool until further processing.

Note: Curd cheese (“Topfen” also known as dry quark) is highly drained low-fat quark. It is particularly suitable for baking as it remains stable when heated. Use: mainly in Austria, southern Germany and Eastern Europe.

Mix the food coloring with the wheat flour to create a smooth red paste. Mix 1’180 g of the basic dough well with this red paste. Roll out the red dough portion to 40×30 cm, cover with foil and store in the refrigerator at 5°C.

Roll out the remaining (light-colored) dough into a rectangular shape measuring 60×40 cm, place on a plastic-lined tray, cover and freeze at -18°C for 45–60 minutes.

Make sure that the dough and butter have the same consistency. Fold the butter sheet into the light-colored dough, then add a double fold and a simple fold one after the other to create 12 layers. Ideal laminating thickness: 9 mm.

Brush the surface of the butter croissant dough with water and place the red dough on top.

Wrap the butter croissant dough in plastic after laminating. It can be stored in the freezer at -18°C for about 1–2 weeks until further processing.

Leave to proof at 5°C for 18–20 hours before use.

Roll out the tempered, two-colored dough 2 mm thin and 50 cm wide, making sure that the red side is facing down. Roll up from both sides towards the center to form a double spiral.

Leave the dough roll to freeze for approx. 1 hour at -18 °C.

Then cut into pieces approx. 2.5 cm wide. Place the dough pieces with the cut edge facing down on the baking tray and roll them out slightly. Fold the outer edge towards the center and press outwards so that the red side is facing up.

Piece proofing: Allow the dough pieces to proof well in the proofer for 60–90 minutes.

Pipe approx. 15 g of the quark and lime filling onto each of the proofed dough pieces.

Bake in a medium-hot oven with steam. Halfway through the baking time, open the vent and bake the hearts until lightly browned.

Dust the slightly cooled pastries with icing sugar. Decorate the surface with fresh, finely sliced strawberries. Carefully glaze with heated, clear jelly.