Sourdough Love Letter Pastries
Sourdough love letter pastries make the perfect treat for Valentine’s Day. The flaky layers of the sourdough pastry dough pairs perfectly with some delicious strawberry or raspberry jam. These little pastries look just like love letters sent from your Valentine to you. They are fun to send with your kids to a Valentine’s Day party, or to have for breakfast on Valentines Day. They also make a delicious treat for breakfast in the summertime with some fresh fruit and homemade yogurt. You will get such a feeling of satisfaction from making something that looks so complicated out of something so healthy and simple.
Ingredients
- 4 cups flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 cups cold butter
- 2 cups sourdough discard
- Filling
- Strawberry or raspberry jam or pie filling
- Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Make The Pastry Dough
- In the bowl of your stand mixer with the cake paddle attachment, or a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.
- Shave or grate cold or frozen butter.
- Add the cold butter to the dry mixture and “cut” in the butter. Use a mixer, or a fork or pastry blender if using a bowl until the mixture resembles small pebbles.
- Add the sourdough starter, and mix just until combined. If you’re using your stand mixer, switch to the dough hook attachment just before adding the sourdough starter. Be careful not to mix it too long. Too much mixing can make it tough.
- Add a Tablespoon of flour or cold water as needed if dough seems too wet or too dry. I typically don’t have to do this, but you can if you need to.
- Put in an airtight container or piece of plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before rolling out.
- This pastry dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks if needed.
To Make The Pastries
- Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, keeping it as square as possible.
- Using your bench scraper, cut 4” sections of pastry dough. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. The bench scraper is about 4” long, so using it makes it easy to make equal squares.
- Be sure to leave a little bit of pastry dough for cutting out the small hearts that will “seal” our love letters.
- You may have to re-roll the edges of the pastry dough and cut them into squares to use up all the dough.
- Make sure a point of the dough squares are facing you on the cookie sheets, so they look like they are in a diamond shape.
- Place 1 Tablespoon of jam or pie filling in the middle of each dough square.
- Fold in the two side points and pinch them together. Fold up the bottom point and combine it with the other two points already joined together. Leave the top point unfolded so it looks like a love letter with the jam peaking out.
- Place one dough heart over the top of where the points are joined together. This will look like a “seal” on your letters.
- Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.
- Can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week in the refrigerator, although I highly doubt these will last that long.
Notes
Tips For Making These Love Letter Pastries
- If you make the sourdough pastry dough ahead of time, you can bake these pastries up easily for a quick and easy breakfast.
- For best results, use a thick jam for this recipe if possible.
- You could put any kind of filling in these love letter pastries. Use your imagination.
