perfect for valentine’s day or any special occasion where you’re showing love, these sweet treats are refined sugar free.
I didn’t really do as much recipe creating as I would have liked for this past holiday season, however I had to get in at least one new recipe for Valentine’s Day this year. I have a few older recipes that I’ve done for Valentine’s Day in the past, but I love that this not only covers the heart-shaped-things bases, it’s also chocolate (!) And chocolate = Valentine’s Day (!) I’ve only more recently started making chocolate-related recipes as it wasn’t an ingredient I was eating when I first started to heal my gut with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Cacao and chocolate aren’t allowed on the diet, however, I now follow a more modified version of the diet and I tolerate refined sugar free dark chocolate! It’s life-changing (sorry not sorry).
That being said, these peanut butter cups are essentially an easy modification to these homemade chocolate peanut butter cups. The recipe is very similar with a few changes– of course, I split the medjool dates open here to make them heart-shaped and I also opt for roasted almonds instead of peanuts. You can easily swap in any preferred nut butter or roasted nut topping that you like – you could go full-on almond with almond butter and chopped almonds, or you could do peanut butter and chopped pecans – any variation works, the world is your oyster!
You only need to freeze these at the very end, so the process is quite simple as well and doesn’t take too long once all your ingredients are portioned out and prepped. I do recommend keeping them in the freezer over the fridge, however, if you prefer them a little softer, by all means store them in the fridge. In my opinion, they’re the best when they’re enjoyed frozen solid fresh out of the freezer!
Lastly, I need to give credit to the inspo behind turning these medjool dates into hearts, and that’s @munchymoodz over on IG! I saw her do it and said I NEEEED to make my own version, that is too freaking cute.
These are such a cute treat to bring out for Valentine’s Day or Galentine’s Day get together, but they’re also just cute af any day of the year you need something heart-shaped (anniversaries, birthdays, etc).
Find this super easy recipe below and a few more special treat recommendations as well! Let me know if you try making them.
A FEW MORE SPECIAL TREAT IDEAS:
- refined sugar free chocolate turtles
- homemade peanut butter cups
- raspberry jam sandwich cookies
- chocolate caramel shortbread cookie cups
heart-shaped medjool date peanut butter cups: ingredients
- 12 medjool dates make sure they’re room temperature, this allows you to split them open easily
- 1/4 -1/3 cup peanut butter sub preferred nut butter
- 1/4 -1/3 cup chopped, roasted almonds sub preferred nuts, they do not need to be roasted
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp refined sugar free dark chocolate chips
- 1 tsp coconut oil
heart-shaped medjool date peanut butter cups: how to
- start by lining a baking sheet with parchmnent paper.
- split your medjool dates in half using your thumbs or a knife, you can keep them slightly attached at the bottom or just open them up all the way and stick the two halves back together to create a heart shape.
- flatten each date into a heart shape with both halves slanted to either side, placing it down on the parchment paper. repeat with each date.
- once all the dates are prepared, take your nut butter and slather each date with the nut butter as generously as you like.
- top each date heart with some chopped nuts of your choosing.
- melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl for 30 second – 1 minute intervals, stirring as you go. once it’s completely melted, stir in the coconut oil.
- spoon the melted chocolate on top of each date. the chocolate will pool a bit around the date. *see notes if you’d like to dip each date entirely in chocolate
- place the dates in the freezer to harden for an hour or two. once they’ve harden, remove from freezer and break off any melted chocolate that surrounds the date heart so you can see the heart shape again.
- store the date hearts in between layers of parchment paper in the freezer, and enjoy these frozen directly out of the freezer!
heart-shaped medjool date peanut butter cups
Ingredients
- 12 medjool dates make sure they're room temperature
- 1/4 -1/3 cup peanut butter sub preferred nut butter
- 1/4 -1/3 cup chopped, roasted almonds sub preferred nuts, they do not need to be roasted
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp refined sugar free dark chocolate chips
- 1 tsp coconut oil
Instructions
- start by lining a baking sheet with parchmnent paper.
- split your medjool dates in half using your thumbs or a knife, you can keep them slightly attached at the bottom or just open them up all the way and stick the two halves back together to create a heart shape.
- flatten each date into a heart shape with both halves slanted to either side, placing it down on the parchment paper. repeat with each date.
- once all the dates are prepared, take your nut butter and slather each date with the nut butter as generously as you like.
- top each date heart with some chopped nuts of your choosing.
- melt the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl for 30 second – 1 minute intervals, stirring as you go. once it's completely melted, stir in the coconut oil.
- spoon the melted chocolate on top of each date. the chocolate will pool a bit around the date. *see notes if you'd like to dip each date entirely in chocolate
- place the dates in the freezer to harden for an hour or two. once they've harden, remove from freezer and break off any melted chocolate that surrounds the date heart so you can see the heart shape again.
- store the date hearts in between layers of parchment paper in the freezer, and enjoy these frozen directly out of the freezer!
Notes
- The medjool dates are best at room temperature as this makes them more malleable to not only split open with your fingers easily but to shape into a heart.
- I personally prefer roasting my nuts for this as I love the flavour that comes out from roasting and the extra crunch, however, if you’re short on time, you can skip roasting.
- If you want to dip these fully in chocolate, you definitely can – I would probably double the amount of chocolate chips needed in that case, and fully dip each carefully using two forks or small tongs. Place them back on the parchment paper and follow the recipe as usual.