Chocolate Peanut Butter Hearts

Can you believe that it is already February tomorrow? Where did January go?! This year is flying past already!

So February brings about Valentine’s day and I thought I would share with you one of my favourite recipes to make for this time of year! Raw chocolates filled with creamy peanut butter. Oh my gosh. So, so good. These little hearts are the perfect way to tell someone you love them.

The recipe could not be any easier. All you need is a heart shaped silicon mould and some delicious healthy ingredients! I got my heart shaped mould from Berts – a fantastic kitchenware shop in Brighton, if you get a chance to visit Brighton – go here. It is amazing. You can also buy heart-shaped moulds online. I prefer silicon moulds when working with chocolate – it saves any potential damage to chocolates when you try and bash them out of those hard plastic moulds.

Anyway, back to these bad boys.

One of my favourite things about these chocolates is that they are much healthier than normal chocolates. In fact they are made from only five ingredients! cacao powder, vanilla powder, cacao butter, honey and peanut butter!

I always use Meridian’s smooth peanut butter because it is basically made from ground peanuts and that is it! Of course, if you have a favourite nut butter – use that instead! They will all work! I think hazelnut butter would be divine with raw cacao! Similarly, almond butter and cashew nut butter would also work!

I would recommend getting your home-made chocolate station set up in advance. You will need a place to melt your chocolate ingredients. I recommend using a home-made bain-marie. This can be fashioned out of a saucepan, a sturdy heat-proof container and a hob. A bain-marie provides a gentle heating environment for delicate recipes such as soufflé, custard or chocolate-making!

How to make a home-made bain-marie:

Fill your saucepan about a third of the way with cold water.
Place on a medium heat on the hob and bring to a simmer.
Place your heat-proof bowl on top of the pan, allowing some room for ventilation. I normally tilt the heat-proof bowl, leaving a gap between the bowl and the saucepan to allow some of the steam to escape.
Voilà, you are ready to melt some chocolate!

Ensure that you have a flat place in your freezer to allow your chocolate to set! Another thing I do before I start is to give the peanut butter a big stir. Separation can occur with the natural peanut butter, so this just makes sure that the peanut butter is nice and spreadable.

Here is how you make the chocolates!

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 12 large chocolates.

100g Cacao butter
5 tbsp Cacao powder
1 tsp Vanilla powder
1-2 tbsp Honey (depending on how sweet you want your chocolates)
6 tsp Peanut butter

Method:

Melt the cacao butter in the bain-marie. The hob should be on a medium heat for this stage.
Once the butter has completely melted, stir in the honey and vanilla powder. Reduce the hob heat to low.
Add the cacao powder on tablespoon at a time. Stir and ensure the powder has been fully mixed in with the butter mixture.
Repeat this step until all the powder has been added. Turn off the heat.
Spoon the melted chocolate mixture into the silicon mould. Add only enough mixture to fill half of each of the cavities. You need to leave enough room to add a layer of peanut butter and a further layer of chocolate.
Pop your half filled moulds in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
After this time, remove from the freezer and add 1/2 a tsp of peanut butter to each chocolate. Spoon over the rest of the melted chocolate mixture and allow to set in the freezer for a further 20 minutes.

If you find that your mixture has stiffened too much to allow it to be spread easily in step 7, then melt in the bain-marie again. I find that if I leave the mixture in the heat-proof bowl over the bain-marie (with the hob off) after step four, it keeps it warm and melted enough.

Make sure that you keep these chocolates chilled or in the freezer until you give to your nearest and dearest! And there you have it. Delicious, creamy chocolates – ready to gift to your favourite people!

Happy chocolate-making everyone!