Valentine's Dessert Recipes

These simple and easy to make Valentine's Dessert Recipes are a sure treat for your Valentine.

Valentine Desserts: Delicious Desserts for Valentine's Day Dinners

Pick a simple but delectable Valentine Day dessert recipe to add the finishing touch to your Valentine dinner. Chocolate is a lovely gift for Valentine’s Day, and it’s good used to add a note of indulgence for your dessert. Another good choice is succulent fresh fruit, which is always so welcome in winter. Any pink or red fruit is ideal, such as strawberries, raspberries or rhubarb. Tropical fruits are also an excellent choice, and for the simplest dessert of all, you could simply serve a platter of sliced fruits such as juicy mango, halved passion fruits, fresh pineapple chunks and papaya wedges. Add some cubes of chocolate cake, and a scattering of shelled nuts, and you’ll have an instant and delectable Valentine’s Day dessert.

Here are more ideas for Valentine’s Day desserts.

Make it pink
Early forced rhubarb is a lovely shade of fresh pink that looks so pretty in a mousse. Chop 450g (12 oz)  fruit and simmer covered for 10 min in a pan with 50ml (4 tbsp)  fresh orange juice, 1 cinnamon stick and 25g (5 tsp) caster sugar, until the rhubarb is tender. Remove the lid and cook for another 5 mins until most of the liquid has evaporated. Stir in 1 tbsp redcurrant jelly and leave to cool. Fold the fruit through 150ml (2/3 cup)  0% fat Greek yogurt, spoon into glasses and chill for 2 hr. This makes six individual portions, and keeps for 1-2 days refrigerated.

Just add chocolate 
Prepare a plate of mixed fruit cut into bite-sized pieces. Put 200g (1 ½ cups) dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl and add 50g (1/4 cup) butter, 75ml (1/3 cup) water and 2 tbsp Malibu or brandy. Place over a pan of barely simmering water, so the base of the bowl is just above the surface of the water. Stir occasionally until melted, then stir until smooth. Serve with forks for spearing the fruit and dipping into the chocolate sauce.

Celebration sorbet
Put 600ml (2 ½ cups) apple and mango juice into a pan with the zest of a lemon and 75g caster sugar. Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil, simmer for 1 min, then pour into a bowl to cool. Strain into a container and place in the freezer for about 4 hours. Remove from freezer and whisk well to break up the ice crystals, then freeze until firm. Serve piled into glasses and decorated with mint leaves, with chocolate finger biscuits.

Heart-shaped delights
Any dessert can become a Valentine dessert, if you add a heart-shaped decoration. Many cookware shops sell heart-shaped moulds and cutters, which you can use to bake cakes and cookies for the day. Or make a heart-stencil, by cutting a heart out of sheet of thin card. Place the card with the heart-shaped hole on top of a cake or pile of pancakes, and dredge with icing sugar. Lift off stencil carefully.

Keep it  healthy, by using low fat ingredients and choosing chocolate with a high proportion of cocoa solids, for these Valentine’s desserts.

Elizabeth Martyn is webmaster at www.healthy-eating-made-easy.com, where she provides information, tips and recipes on using seasonal, fresh ingredients to feed the family healthily and without hassle.

Visit the site for detailed Valentine's Day recipes and other seasonal recipes.