Heart Drag Design

I thought I would share the little secret of how I made the design on the plates for my éclairs yesterday. Actually, it's not really much of a secret, it has been featured in many cookbooks. This design will work with any type of liquid sauce base; chocolate, caramel, raspberry, rum, etc. as long as you have another contrasting liquid for the hearts. Dark and white chocolate work well together, as do raspberry coulis and white chocolate. Here I used a simple chocolate sauce (from yesterday) and a little bit of extra whipping cream I had. 
To make this design, a flat plate with a bit of a rim works best. Spoon the bottom sauce n to the plate in a layer thin enough to just cover. Spread it out in a neat circle. Now place drops of the other sauce a little bit in from the edge of the plate at even intervals. It does not to be exact, and depends on the size of the plate of course. Two really good tools to do this are eye-droppers, which dispense a tiny bit of liquid and are very accurate, and a squeeze bottle. Squeeze bottles are often used for candy making and dessert presentation. They are plastic bottles with small opens that are used to dispense sauces and candy melts.  I used the latter. Once you have both sauces on the plate  the e\next part is easy and fun. Take a toothpick and place it in the bottom sauce between two dots. Then drag the toothpick through the middle of each dot, and don't left the toothpick up until you have gone all the way around the plates. This will turn the dots into hearts. This is pretty simple, but looks quite professional. I used a sauce that stayed liquid in the fridge, so I was able to prepare my plates a few hours in advance. Although the sauce may have been easier to eat if it had hardened a bit! Don't prepare them too early though, because the hearts could melt into the bottom sauce. And be careful carrying them to the table, if you tip the plate a little the hearts could run. This design works well with small desserts that can be placed in the center of the circle of hearts.