Rhubarb Melting Moments for My Valentine

Forced Rhubarb Vanilla Jam

Remove the leaves and wash and dry the rhubarb. Cut the stalks into 1cm pieces.

Place the rhubarb, both sugars, one vanilla pod, seeds and the tablespoon of water into a jam pan or thick based saucepan.

Let the sugar dissolve over very low heat, stir to encourage the sugar to dissolve.

Once the sugar has dissolved turn the heat up, cook the jam over high heat. Do not stir the jam too often, just every now and then to prevent it from catching.

Wash the sides of the pan down with a clean pastry brush that's dipped in boiling hot water. If you do not do this the jam will crystallize easily.

Cook the jam till it reaches 105°C; alternatively to check if your jam is ready, place a small plate in the freezer, drop a few drops of jam onto the plate, if the jam sets immediately and you can draw your finger through without the jam running it means it's ready. Remember the longer you cook the jam  the darker the caramelized  colour  will become and the flavour more earthy.

Once the jam reaches the correct temperature add the juice of one lemon, stir and remove the jam from the heat.

Let the jam cool slightly before ladling your jam into cleaned sterilized jars.

How I sterilize my jam jars: I sterilize my jam jars by preheating the oven to 100°C, wash the jam jars and lids in hot soapy water, dry and then place them on a baking tray in the preheated oven. Leave the jars in the oven for 25 minutes, let them cool down slightly before you ladle your warm jam into the sterilized jars. Secure the lid immediately and leave the jam to cool at room temperature.

Makes approximately 600g of jam

Melting Moments Biscuits

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line two baking trays with silpats or parchment paper.

Cream the butter, vanilla seeds and icing sugar until pale and fluffy.

Sift the flour and cornflour and fold it into the creamed butter mixture. The biscuit dough will be very firm, the softer the butter (not melted though) the easier it will be to work with.

Transfer the biscuit dough into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe one row of biscuit bases 3cm in diameter and one row of tops,  a 3cm diameter circle.                                          Leave enough space between each biscuit as they will need a bit of room to grow. Pipe equal amounts of tops and bases.

Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 18 - 20 minutes, make sure that they are cooked through but not brown in colour. They should be pale and light.

Carefully transfer them to a cooling rack leaving the biscuits to cool completely while making the lemon butter cream.

Lemon Butter Cream

Cream the butter until creamy and pale in colour.

Add the sifted icing sugar and lemon juice to the creamed butter, whip until the butter cream becomes fluffy.

Fold the lemon zest into the butter cream.

Transfer the butter cream to piping bag with a star nozzle

Assembling the biscuits

Once the melting moments are completely cold, pair them up and lay them out onto a clean work surface. Turn the biscuit with the hole the right way up and dust with icing sugar. The  inside of the bases should be  facing upwards so as you can pipe on a circle of the lemon butter cream,leave a hole in the centre for the jam.

Spoon a generous spoonful of the rhubarb jam in the centre, place the biscuit with the hole on top to complete your  melting moment sandwich.

They are now ready to eat!

They will go soggy if you leave them overnight so I recommend you do not complete the assembly until required. They will remain crisp and good for about 2 - 3 hours.

Makes approximately 25 melting moments

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