Heart-shaped Candies

Happy Valentine's Day!

Alisa posted these delightful little treats and I knew I had to make them! I think hers turned out a lot prettier, and more refined looking than mine, but they still taste delicious!


Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Hearts

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup margarine (I used 50/50 Smart Balance)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 Tbsp milk, or alternative
12 oz. bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag small twist-style pretzels

Mix the peanut butter, butter and vanilla. Then add in the salt and slowly mix in the powdered sugar, until incorporated. If the dough is getting too stiff, add in a tablespoon of milk to help move it around a bit. You'll want it to be a doughy consistency, so it's easy to work with it.

Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and coat the little hearts on both sides. Lift out with a fork, tapping it on the edge of the bowl to let the excess chocolate drip off. Place on a piece of wax paper, and into the fridge to cool.

I doubled the above recipe, because I wanted to make tons to share with co-workers and J's family this Sunday. Instead of 4 cups of powdered sugar, I stopped at around 3 1/2 cups and it was a nice, doughy consistency that tasted peanut buttery and not too sweet. I think the full 4 cups would have been too sweet in this case.

We got to work shaping the little hearts, which was fun to "play with your food." Our double batch yielded about 61 or 62 little hearts, and then J made a big one which equalled about 3 - for a grand total of about 65 for a double batch, so I'd say low - 30s for a normal batch.