Healthy Peanut Butter Hearts + 4 Awesome Vegan Valentine’s Day Recipes

[Welcome to Oat Week – Valentine’s Day Edition! This post is sponsored by my wonderful friends over at Bob’s Red Mill – we’re using their Gluten Free Oat Flour for these Healthy Peanut Butter Hearts!]

Not to get all mushy on your guys, because, seriously, been there/done that, but unlike every other year of my 23 years of living, I’m seriously looking forward to Valentines Day this year! Because unlike every other year of my 23 years of living, I actually have a boyfriend on Valentine’s Day!

Now, I’m not saying that you have to have a S.O. in your life in order to enjoy Valentine’s Day, but the first year you get to spend the most love-infested day of the year with your main-squeeze is kinda totally ridiculously exciting.

Even when I was boyfriend-less, I didn’t hate Valentine’s Day. I mean, seriously, how could you hate a holiday that’s dedicated to the consumption of chocolate, red velvet, and wine?

You just can’t. Not possible, friends!

And if chocolate is inevitable for me, some good ol’ peanut butter is bound to end up in the mix…

As you can probably tell by spending a whole five seconds browsing my recipes, I crush on chocolate+peanut butter hard. For me, these two ingredients create the single most addictive flavor combination on the planet. Sweet, rich, creamy, decadent, and delicious – I crave chocoPB anything. But when Valentine’s Day rolls around, and I see those bright yellow packages of Reese’s Hearts…those cravings become something fierce.

I’m telling you, when I was younger, I could have eaten a whole bag of those addictive little buggers. I always thought they tasted better than their circular counterparts. Maybe I was just totally smitten over their adorable, festive heart shape. But I’m convinced that the hearts were far superior over the regular ol’ peanut butter cups. ❤️❤️❤️

Thus, I needed to make my own spin on these favorite VDay-themed desserts of mine; We’re taking them in a healthier, gluten free, and vegan direction today! Oh, and they’re refined sugar-free and require a mere FIVE ingredients! Can Valentine’s Day get any better?!

And, of course, it all starts with the peanut butter! Natural only, please! Be sure you use one you love because it’ll be making up the bulk of this recipe! A whole 1/2 cup goes into these babies, so you know they’re going to be craaaazy rich and dreamy.

Our sweetener in the peanut butter filling and in the chocolate coating comes a la maple syrup. I use this minimally-processed sweetener in almost every dessert recipe I post on the blog because I love the warm, earthy flavor it gives just about everything! Here, it gives these PB hearts just enough sweetness, while still letting the addictive richness of the peanut butter really shine.

To make this a true copycat recipe, I looked to my favorite Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oat Flour to get the job done! You know how in Reese’s version of their peanut butter heart, the peanut butter center is a little dry? That’s the exact texture that BRM’s oat flour gives us in this healthier version, too! It dries out our PB filling juuuuust enough to give us that texture that’s a dead-ringer for the original peanut butter hearts!

So let’s make these Healthy Peanut Butter Hearts for our sweeties this Valentine’s Day. And you could (and totally should) customize them via the peanut butter coating however you’d like! I tried to be all cutesy and make chocolate peanut butter conversation hearts out of these chocolates, but I’m definitely not an artist so polka-dots and stripes worked, too. Making this M+A heart was a quite a struggle for me, but it’s literally the cutest thing ever so I think it’s perfect.  ?

Regardless of what they look like, I’m sure your honey-baby-sugar-pie is gonna love these Healthy Peanut Butter Hearts!

Healthy Peanut Butter Hearts

Print Recipe

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5 from 2 reviews

• Yield: 9-11

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter, plus 2 Tbsp. for the topping if desired
• 2 Tbsp. pure maple syrup, divided
• 2–3 Tbsp. Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free Oat Flour
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 2 Tbsp. coconut oil, plus 1 tsp. for the topping if desired

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Melt peanut butter in a small pot over medium heat while constantly stirring with a silicone spatula. When the peanut butter has melted, remove from heat and allow it to cool for 5 minutes.
3. When slightly cool, add 1 Tbsp. maple syrup and mix to combine.
4. Add 2 Tbsp. oat flour and mix to combine. The mixture should resemble a really thick cookie dough. If it’s too thin, add an additional Tbsp. oat flour.
5. Take small chunks of your peanut butter mixture and shape them into hearts. Stick them on your prepared baking sheet. Place in the freezer and freeze until practically solid, about 1 hour.
6. When you’re just about ready to remove your peanut butter filling, melt coconut oil in the microwave or on the stove. Add cocoa powder, remaining 1 Tbsp. maple syrup and mix until smooth.
7. Using a fork, dunk each heart into the chocolate mixture, flip to cover the other side, tap to remove any excess chocolate, and then return to the baking sheet. Once all hearts have been dunked, return the hearts to the freezer to set.*
8. To make the peanut butter coating: Melt 2 Tbsp. peanut butter and 1 tsp. coconut oil. I found using a toothpick to decorate my hearts worked best! Draw polka dots, stripes, initials, cute messages, etc.!
9. Store Healthy Peanut Butter Hearts in the fridge.

Notes

*You can dunk your hearts in the chocolate for a second time, if desired. This just gives them a more even coating! Just allow the first coating to set completely before dunking them for the second time!

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

Today is an exciting day on Fooduzzi because I have, not one, but FOUR Valentine’s Day recipes to share with you today! Some of my blogging friends and I planned a Vegan Valentine’s Day Extravaganza for your viewing and eating pleasure this Valentine’s Day!

Guys, I’m telling you, one of THE most rewarding parts of this whole blogging venture is getting to know ridiculously awesome ladies. Not only am I totally obsessed with their blogs, but they are incredible people to know on a personal-level, too. I’ve learned so much from them about blogging, eating whole foods, and living a healthy lifestyle. I seriously love them in more ways than I can possibly say here, so let’s just get to their deliciously vegan Valentine’s Day desserts, shall we?!

On top of my addictive Healthy Peanut Butter Hearts, we have:

Vegan Red Velvet Pancakes from Emilie at Emilie Eats

Vegan Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies from Giselle at Diary of an ExSloth (note for my GF readers: these aren’t gluten free, but Giselle suggested trying out a blend of gluten free flours!)

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cheesecake Bites from Leah at Love Me Feed Me

One Sinful Strawberry Chia Pudding from Addie at Chickpea in the City

Be sure to check out these festive vegan goodies for your sweetest Valentine’s Day yet!

A very special thank you goes to Bob’s Red Mill for sponsoring this post and for supplying me with some of their delicious products that I love for this recipe! All opinions are my own.

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