Heart of My Heart Tarts

Heart of My Heart Tarts

This recipe was listed under the D tab for desserts in the recipe box. 

When I found this recipe I was intrigued to bake it because it looked like a creative way of expressing your love for someone through baking. I have to admit, I'm usually not very creative when it comes to baking! Whenever I try to write on cakes or make a design it always comes out awful. But, to my surprise, the recipe isn't so hard to follow or make look ascetically pleasing. It just has many steps. I'm not sure where the recipe originally came from, but it looks like a newspaper clipping.

Before I read the entire recipe I assumed it would be a tart; similar to a fruit tart that you see in pastry shops. The ones that look like mini pies with fresh fruit and a glaze on the top. I was wrong! It's actually a meringue recipe with ice cream and a fruity syrup topping. 

When I asked, my mom said she had never made this recipe. She said  my father doesn't like meringues, but that she must have chosen the recipe because she was building her recipe box and didn't know how to cook at the time. Finding out that my mother had never tried baking this recipe made me even more intrigued to try it out! Here it goes...

Heart of My Heart Tarts

                        

20 Crackers (unsalted tops), finely

            rolled (about ¾ cup crumbs)

¾ Cup chopped blanched almonds

3 Egg whites, at room temperature

½ Teaspoon cream of tartar

1 Cup granulated sugar

1 Pound frozen whole strawberries in

            syrup

Water

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 Pint vanilla ice cream

Combine first two ingredients. Set aside. Beat egg whites with

cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Beat in sugar a tablespoon

at a time, beating until stiff and glossy. Fold in crumb mixture.

Place brown wrapping paper on cookie sheet, grease well, and shape

meringues into six small heart-shaped tarts, pulling the sides up with

a spoon. Bake in preheated oven (300 degrees) for 25 to 30 minutes or

until lightly browned. Immediately remove with care from cookie

sheet and place on wire rack to cool.

To make sauce, drain strawberries, reserving syrup. Add enough water to

make 1 ¼ cups; heat to bubbling. Stir cornstarch into lemon juice. Blend

into hot syrup. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and clear. Cool,

add strawberries. Using a melon ball scoop, make ice cream balls. (These

may be done in advance and left in the freezer until ready to use.) Place five

ice cream balls on each cooled meringue heart. Pour sauce over ice cream.

Makes six tarts.

Before starting the recipe be sure to set your oven to 300 degrees. You will also want to get the eggs out of the refrigerator now so they can be room temperature when you're ready to use them. I also suggest getting your cookie sheet ready now. You will need to place parchment paper (they refer to it as brown wrapping paper in the recipe, but you definitely don't want to put gift wrapping paper on a cookie sheet in the oven!) on the cookie sheet and coat it liberally with a non-stick spray. Be sure the edges of the parchment paper don't stick up above the edges of the cookie sheet or they might burn! 

Next you'll need to crush your crackers. I used saltines, but you can use any kind of cracker you'd like. For more of a sweet flavor I would suggest using graham crackers. I placed the 20 crackers in a plastic storage bag and used my rolling pin to break them into crumbs. Be sure to crush the crackers as small as you can so there aren't any huge chunks in your meringue. You can also use a food processor if that's easier for you. Once you've measured out your cracker crumbs; combine them with the almonds and set the mixture aside. 

You'll need another bowl and an electric mixer for this next part. Separate the 3 egg whites from the yolks and add them to the bowl with the cream of tartar. With your electric mixer, beat the egg whites and tartar on high until it starts to form soft peaks. 

Next, you'll need to add the sugar a tablespoon at a time while continuing to beat the egg white mixture. Once the entire cup of sugar is incorporated the mixture should have a stiff glossy texture like this...

Finally, add the cracker and almond mixture to the egg white mixture by folding it in with a regular spatula (don't use the electric mixer for this part). 

Now comes the fun/creative part! Once both mixtures have been combined you'll need a tablespoon to place the meringues on the cookie sheet. First place six piles of the mixture, with enough space between them so they don't mush together, on the cookie sheet. You can attempt to make hearts out of the spoonfuls of meringue in any way you'd like, but I found it easiest for me to go around the edge of each pile with a spoon and shape it into a heart. Once you get to the top part where the heart folds in you can use your spoon to push the middle section down towards the bottom of the heart. This will create the top of the heart shape. Be sure to smooth most of the body of the meringue down before cooking them so they don't burn. 

Once you have six heart shaped meringues on your cookie sheet, place them in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until they have a light brown color on top. When they're finished cooking, make sure to immediately take them off of the cookie sheet and move them to a wire rack for cooling and to prevent them from sticking to the parchment paper. 

While the meringues are in the oven you can get to work on the strawberry sauce. First drain the strawberries, but reserve the sauce/liquid they are in to a measuring cup. Add enough water to the strawberry syrup to make 1 & 1/4 cups. Transfer the water and syrup mixture to a medium sized pan and heat until it starts to bubble. 

While you're waiting for the syrup mixture to bubble you will need to combine the cornstarch and lemon juice in a separate bowl. You can use a spoon to mix them together; no need for the electric mixer. Just be sure that there are no lumps before the next step. 

Add the lemon and cornstarch mixture to the hot syrup and stir constantly until it becomes thick and clear. Mine took about 15 minutes to thicken up. Be sure that you are constantly stirring the mixture during this time to prevent it from burning.

Once the mixture is clear and thick you can remove it form the heat and let it cool completely. It should harden up a little more and have a layer of "skin" on the top. The kind pudding also gets when it cools.

Once the syrup has cooled you can add the strawberries to it. My strawberries were still a little frozen so I put the whole syrup and strawberry mixture back on the stove for a few minutes to take the chill off before serving.  

When you're ready to serve your heart shaped dessert you will need the vanilla ice cream. You can use a melon ball scoop as they suggested, but a regular ice cream scoop will work just as well. Place as much ice cream as you'd like on top of the heart meringue and then cover with the yummy strawberry syrup!

Congratulations, you've just made a very fruity meringue dessert! I'm sure yours looks much nicer than mine since I'm definitely not an artist! 

I gave this recipe a 5 out of 5 on the yummy scale. I really love the almond flavor combined with the strawberries. I'm usually not a fan of meringues, but this recipe gave them an unusual shape and texture and won my affection! 

You can always change the kind of fruit you use for the syrup to whatever you have in the house or whatever is in season. A blueberry syrup would be delicious! Also you can change the kind of nut in the meringue, but just be sure they are cut finely so they don't make the mixture too chunky. 

I hope you enjoy this dessert with your sweetheart!