Chocolate Peanut Butter Hearts for Saint Dwynwen

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If food is your language of love, chocolate cake mixed with peanut butter, shaped into hearts and smothered in a thick layer of milk chocolate, will definitely be your love language! 

Scotland may be celebrating Robbie Burns today, but in Wales we celebrate our patron saint of love on 25th January, Saint Dwynwen and these heavenly chocolate hearts make the perfect gift.

What is Saint Dwynwen’s Day?

Dwynwen was a beautiful princess who lived back in the 5th century. Legend has it that she was head over heels in love with a prince called Maelon. Her father promised her hand to another man however, and, heart broken, she begged God to help her forget Maelon. According to this legend, an angel visited her in her sleep and turned Maelon into a block of ice. 

This devastated Dwynwen further and when God gave her 3 wishes she requested that:

• Maelon was thawed
• zxGod should help the hopes and dreams of true lovers
• she would never marry

In recognition of her wishes being granted, Dwynwen set up a convent on Llanddwyn Island off the coast of Anglesey and devoted herself to God. Women would visit from miles around to seek her advice on love and after her death, a well on the island became a place of pilgrimage for lovers. Sacred fish in the well were said to predict the future happiness of couples. 

When the original convent succumbed to the elements, a small chapel was built in its stead, the ruins of which can be visited to this day.

Saint Dwynwen’s day is celebrated very much like Valentine’s Day with gifts and tokens of love such as flowers and chocolates. Welsh love spoons are also popular gifts – the symbols carved into the wood reflecting the hopes and dreams of couples for the future. 

How to make Chocolate Peanut Butter Hearts

Collect all your ingredients together:

• leftover chocolate cake – home-made or shop bought
• smooth peanut butter
• your favourite chocolate – I used milk chocolate
• chopped salted peanuts

How to bring these ingredients together to make these mouth fulls of joy:

1. Break up the chocolate cake into a bowl and use your fingers to break it down into crumbs.
2. Add the peanut butter and mix thoroughly with a spoon.
3. Tip out onto a flat surface, I used a chopped board. Bring together and flatten to around 1 cm thick.
4. Cut out heart shapes using a cookie cutter. Push the leftovers back together and cut out more hearts until the mixture is used up. The number you make will depend on the size of the cutter you use.
5. Cover and put into the freezer for a few hours or overnight until solid.
6. When the hearts are solid, they are ready to be covered in chocolate.

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Melt the chocolate and cover the hearts:

1. Break up the chocolate and add to a powerful blender. Blitz until it forms a powder-like consistency. If your blender is not very powerful or is small, do this in batches.
2. Chop the salted peanuts.
3. Transfer the chocolate to a plastic, microwave safe bowl.
4. Blitz for 15 seconds, take out of the microwave and stir well – it probably won’t look much different at this stage.
5. Blitz again for 15 seconds, take out of the microwave and stir again, thoroughly. The chocolate should start clumping together.
6. Next, blitz again for 10 seconds and stir well. Set aside for 1 minute to cool a little before heating again.
7. Stir again, and if necessary, blitz for a further 10 seconds. Stir well. If it is still not ready, blitz for 10 seconds only at a time, stir well and leave for 30 seconds in between each blitz.
8. Dip each frozen heart in the chocolate, making sure it is fully coated.
9. Immediately sprinkle on some chopped salted peanuts – do this straight away because the chocolate sets very quickly on the frozen hearts!
10. Repeat with the remaining hearts.

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Made this recipe?

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