The above is made twisting both doughs and filling the heart openings with the plain cream cheese filling. I then dotted the center with the chocolate filling.
As promised, my revision!
The recipe is here: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/lemon-love-buns-recipe
My revision:
3/4 cup of water (170 grams)
30 grams of butter and 35 cream cheese
1 large egg, plus the egg yolk of another egg (save the egg white of the second egg as it will serve as your wash)
3 small drops (I use a dropper) of almond extract and one teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 teaspoon of salt
30 grams of sugar
2 teaspoons of Buttermilk powder
363 grams of flour (if making the chocolate* version add 1/2 to 2/3 of a cup of dutch cocoa powder to your flour)
2 teaspoons of instant yeast
*when the dough is starting to knead, I added 1/2 a cup of mini chocolate chips (semi-sweet) to the chocolate batch to give it that extra chocolate flavor.
Fillings:
Make chocolate ganache: half chocolate, I use a mix of semi-sweet and bittersweet and you then add the same amount of Heavy Cream. For example- you mix 1/2 a cup of chocolate chips to 1/2 a cup of heavy cream and melt on the stove. Do not simmer or boil! I do the game of adding heat and then move my pot away to stir and if I see it needs more heat, I go back to the flame.
I then add 1/4 cup of ganache to 5 ounces of softened cream cheese and mix. Then I add a tablespoon of flour and mix again until smooth That is my simple filling. You can play with the ratios to suit your taste and add chocolate chips if you wish. Just remember you may need to up the flour amount to get the consistency desired.
For the plain cream cheese filling, I take 8 ounces of softened cream cheese (usually one package) and add 1/2 a vanilla bean, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of flour. Again, just mix until smooth.
The above is the chocolate dough with chocolate filling
The big difference comes when assembly. I did just like the recipe but left the heart shape open more once I twisted the dough. Plop the fillings of your choice and then let it rise. That simple! You can see that both my plain dough and chocolate dough yielded many possibilities! I believe in playing and making it your own, as you can see I even added Boysenberry Preserves to some hearts because that is my husband's favorite fruit. Some even have no filling because I crave plain sometimes. Again, just have as good time creating!
Wishing everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!! I believe hearts and love is year round, so I will be making these again soon!
The above is plain cream cheese filling with Boysenberry Preserves
Other Varieties:
I made a braid as I had to little dough left to make hearts. I also made a chocolate dough heart with the plain cream cheese filling
Plain dough hearts with no filling
Playing around and making normal buns with a dot of filling
