Two Chocolate-y Valentine’s Treats: Candy & Cocktails, Oh My!

Valentine’s Day is approaching. Love it or hate it, it’s a fabulous excuse to indulge in a few sweets. Here are recipes for two devilishly delightful chocolate-y treats.

Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Hearts
(Peanut-butter cup and pretzel sandwiches dipped in a lavish amount of chocolate)

Chocolate Cherry Kiss Cocktail
(Created especially for my friend Bunny, this potent and creamy drink is served in a melt-on-your-lips chocolate rimmed glass. Get the full, step-by-step recipe at Bunny Got Blog.)

Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Hearts

So, what’s that, you say? These mini pretzels are suspiciously…heart shaped? Why yes, they are! Quick, get me some chocolate, stat! (Mwahahahaha…)

These Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Hearts are crunchy, creamy, a little salty, and oh-so-sweet.

Making them is half the fun. You need to be patient. You also need to like to play with your food, and not mind getting your paws covered in chocolate and peanut butter.

This is one part recipe and one part technique. Actual measurements will depend on how many Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Hearts you want to make.

For each candy, you’ll need:

+2 mini pretzels
+1 mini peanut butter cup
+melted chocolate

Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Hearts

Mini pretzels
Mini peanut butter cups
Chocolate chips

Make your chocolate and peanut butter cup sandwiches

Grab your mini pretzels and mini peanut butter cups.

Unwrap a peanut butter cup.

Smoosh it down with a finger.

You want to flatten it out, and break the top layer of chocolate into several pieces, exposing the creamy peanut butter filling.

Center it on top of a mini pretzel and press down on it lightly to make it stick.

Set another mini pretzel on top of it, lined up with the one on the bottom.

Gently and evenly, press the top pretzel down. Don’t go crazy. You’re not building a house. You just need to pretzel to stick to the exposed peanut butter filling in a few places.

You want it to look about like this, and hold together in once piece when you pick it up.

If you break the pretzel, just use a new one. I broke a bunch. That’s just fine.

When the top pretzel is secure, set your little sandwich aside.

Repeat with more pretzels and peanut butter cups until you have as many as you like.

Toss your scraps and wrappers. Put your sandwiches aside while you melt the chocolate.

Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Hearts: Melt the dipping chocolate

Bring an inch of water to boil on the stove. When the water’s boiling, drop the heat to low. Set a large, heat-proof bowl on top of the water.

Add your chocolate chips to the bowl. They should start to melt almost instantly.

Stir them with a spatula or wooden spoon.

When the chocolate is completely melted, turn the stove off. Remove the bowl from the pot. (Careful, it will be dripping with hot water.)

Set the chocolate on the counter to cool. Keep an eye on it. You want it to be a comfortable temperature for dipping (i.e. getting your hands in), but still be melted.

Dip your sandwiches

Line a sheet pan or plate with wax paper. Set aside.

When the chocolate is cool enough to touch without burning yourself, dip your pretzel and peanut butter cup sandwiches.

You need to move fast and be kind of gentle.

Depending on how warm your chocolate is, it can slightly melt the peanut butter cup filling, which means the pretzels might slide around a little. That’s just fine.

Cover your sandwich completely in chocolate, then realign the pretzels.

Put the chocolate-coated pretzel sandwich on your prepared pan. Don’t worry about making a mess on the pan.

With your finger (or a chopstick or knife), sculpt the chocolate a little to make sure the heart shape is clear. Depending on the shape of the pretzel, some might have a better heart shape than others.

Keep dipping until you’ve coated all your pretzel sandwiches in chocolate. If you like, you could also sprinkle the tops with finely chopped nuts.

Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Hearts: Chill your candy

When you’re done, stick the pan or plate in the fridge until the chocolate is set.

You want them to look about like this:

Take them out of the fridge when the chocolate is totally hard.

Pull them off the paper (they should come off without a hitch) and transfer them to an airtight container or zip-top bag to store.

You should be able to store them at room temperature. If you find that the chocolate is smearing or getting soft, keep them in the fridge.

Chocolate-Covered Peanut Butter Hearts: Tips for sharing

For a nice gift presentation, wrap a stack in wax paper and tie it with a silk ribbon. You can also put each heart in a decorative muffin wrapper and pack a handful in a cardboard candy box.

Hey, what about that cocktail?

Yep, yep. Here you go.

I was really excited and honored when Bunny from Bunny Got Blog invited me to be her first-ever guest author. The Angry Chef and I created this Chocolate Cherry Kiss Cocktail just for her.

(If you don’t know Bunny, definitely check her out. She blogs about a lot of topics, from relationships to business, and is always a good read.)

This cocktail is rimmed with solid chocolate�and has two types of vodka, creme de cacao, Godiva liqueur, and light cream. It’s luscious and velvety.

Stop by Bunny Got Blog for the recipe and step-by-step instructions for chocolate coating your glass.

Cheers!

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Copyright 2008-2009 The Hungry Mouse�/Jessica B. Konopa. All rights reserved.

candy, chocolate, homemade gifts, peanut butter