You don't have to wait for Reese's peanut butter hearts to hit store shelves each Valentine's Day - make your own! With 6 ingredients and a cookie cutter, you'll have homemade creamy chocolate peanut butter hearts - no specialty silicone molds, no baking. Can easily be made with other shapes for different holidays!
1/2-1teaspooncoconut oilvegetable oil, or shortening
Instructions
Make the peanut butter filling
Line a half sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper, and set aside.
In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer, beat butter on high speed for 2 minutes until smooth and creamy.
1/4 cup unsalted butter
Add peanut butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt and beat on low medium speed until well combined.
2/3 cup peanut butter, 1 cup confectioners’ sugar (powdered sugar), 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, pinch salt
Press into the bottom of your prepared sheet pan, at about a 1/2" thickness (no rolling pin needed). Place sheet pan in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
Remove the pan from the freezer, and use an heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out as many "hearts" as you can. If you need to, transfer your heart cutouts to another parchment lined sheet pan while you re-press and freeze any of the remnant peanut butter dough to use up the rest of the dough.Place the sheet pan of heart cutouts back in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, but I recommend 1 hour.
Melt chocolate
Microwave method: In a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate and oil and heat in 30 second increments, stirring after each, until melted and smooth. Use something with a decent amount of depth to it to make dipping easier, such as a liquid measuring cup. Let the chocolate sit at room temperature for a few minutes to cool a little before dipping your peanut butter hearts.
10 ounces dark chocolate or white chocolate, 1/2-1 teaspoon coconut oil
Double boiler method: In a double boiler (with a small amount of water in the saucepan that doesn't touch the bottom of the top pan), bring water to a simmer. Add chocolate and oil, and stir constantly until chocolate has melted. Remove from heat for a few minutes to cool a little before dipping your peanut butter hearts.
10 ounces dark chocolate or white chocolate, 1/2-1 teaspoon coconut oil
Coat the peanut butter hearts in chocolate
Using a candy dipper or a fork, submerge each peanut butter heart into the melted chocolate until completely coated, then lift out and gently tap the fork against the edge of the bowl to remove excess dripping chocolate. Transfer the coated hearts back to the parchment paper to set.If you find the peanut butter hearts getting too soft to work with, pop them back in the freezer for a bit.
If you're planning to decorate them with sprinkles, you'll want to do that just after you've dipped them in the chocolate as they will set up pretty quickly!
Place the sheet of coated hearts back in freezer for 30 minutes to set completely. Serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Chocolate: You can also substitute the chopped chocolate and oil for 10 ounces of chocolate melting wafers. You just don't want to use chocolate chips because they don't melt well.Storage: I like to keep my peanut butter hearts stored between layers of parchment paper in a freezer-safe container in the freezer. It only takes a couple minutes outside of the freezer to be ready to eat, and they can be stored in the freezer to up to 3 months. You could also keep them stored the same way, but in an airtight container the fridge instead for up to 2 weeks.