Chocolate Peanut Butter Hearts

Love Reese's? You'll love chocolate peanut butter hearts. These heart shaped peanut butter candies covered in melted chocolate make the best Valentine's Day treats!

Chocolate peanut butter treats are my family's go-to choice when it comes to candy. Dan loves Reese's Mini Cups; the boys and I love it all, especially Ritz cracker cookies, peanut butter balls with Rice Krispies, and buckeyes.

Special holidays like Valentine's Day always mean heart shaped peanut butter cups. While I've tried to master copycat versions of Reese's peanut butter cups, I think this is probably the closest I've ever gotten.

These chocolate covered peanut butter hearts make a yummy Valentine for anyone (provided they don't have a peanut allergy), be it family, friends, or even your neighbors.

Ingredient Notes:

Let's look at a few of the ingredients…

• Salted Butter – I always recommend real butter over margarine. Anything less than real butter will change the texture of the finished candies.
• Powdered Sugar
• Creamy Peanut Butter – You can use chunky if you like a little more crunch to your peanut butter cups.
• Graham Crackers – These will need to be crushed. I like to put the crackers in a Ziploc bag and roll over them with a rolling pin to crush them. You can also use a food processor.
• Chocolate – While you can use candy melts, I recommend using real chocolate. Ghirardelli Melting Wafers are among my favorite melting chocolates; it's becoming one of my favorite brands of chocolate for baking and sweets because the chocolate's just so creamy and rich, full of flavor. Chocolate chips also work well.

How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Hearts

The hearts are easy to make, though the dipping process can be a little messy. If you'd rather no dipping, you'll enjoy this buckeye bars recipe.

Make the Heart Shapes

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the butter, powdered sugar, and peanut butter.
2. Add the crushed graham crackers to the peanut butter mixture, mixing well.
3. To create the heart shapes, roll out the peanut butter filling on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin; roll to about 3/4 inch thickness.
4. Cut heart shapes with a small heart shaped cookie cutter.

How to Melt the Chocolate for Dipping

Depending on the chocolate you decide to use, you can melt it a few different ways:

• Melt it using a double boiler on the stove – This is basically a pan inside of another pan with boiling water in the bottom pan. It allows for more even melting without burning, and it also keeps the chocolate warm for dipping.
• Use a fondue pot and make it a family affair.
• Melt it in the microwave – This is usually the route I go. Just follow package directions.

Also, depending on the type of chocolate used, some people like to add shortening or paraffin wax to their chocolate as it melts. This allows for a thinner coating and stretches your chocolate a little further.

How to Dip Peanut Butter Hearts

1. Dip the hearts in chocolate, using your fingers, tongs, or a candy dipping tool. Once you do a few, you start to get a knack for it, and it becomes easier.
2. Drip off excess chocolate after dipping, and place the candies on a wax paper covered cookie sheet.
3. Place the chocolate dipped candies in the fridge to chill, so the chocolate coating can harden.

More Valentine's Desserts

• Heart shaped Valentine Rice Krispie Treats with M&M's
• Valentine marshmallow pops
• Heart shaped whoopie pies
• Little Debbie Valentine cakes
• Valentine cake pops

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