Make Life Sweet This Valentine's Day With A Homemade Treat

Sweet treats and Valentine's Day go together like Legolas and Gimli. Making them by hand takes it to the next level! Show your Valentine how much they mean to you by making my take on this popular sweet and healthy treat!

Supplies:

• Baking dish. I used a nine inch square. You can use whatever size you want. I’ve used a muffin pan before.

• Parchment paper. This is optional. I don’t use it, but the candy will stick a little to your dish.

• Small sauce pan

• Wooden spoon

• Trivet

• Regular spoon or two

• Dates. The fresher and softer the better, but this does still work well with ones that are a little drier.

• Nut of choice. I used pecans, the king of all nuts.

• Chocolate of choice. I had some semi-sweet chocolate chips laying around.

• Butter. I used 8 tablespoons/ one stick.

• Salt of choice. I used a combo of flaky salts. Smoked salt is also a solid choice.

• Nut butter of choice. I used peanut butter.

• Space in your refrigerator.

How To:

• Add your butter to the sauce pan and melt over low heat.

• While your butter is melting, open up your dates so that they are flat, and lay them in your baking dish.

• Turn you attention back to your butter. You are going to make browned butter. How dark you want to go is up to you. I like to keep an eye on it, stirring frequently so I can observe how dark the milk solids are getting. Darker = more caramel flavor, but too far is just burnt. It will start to look something like this when it is close:

• When the butter is to your desired level of brownness, pour it over the dates. I place a trivet under my baking dish, because the butter is hot.

• Time to melt the chocolate. I use the heat remaining in the saucepan where I browned the butter. I find that it is usually hot enough to melt the chocolate without additional heat. Also one less dish to wash!

• While your chocolate is melting, spread your nut butter of choice over the dates.

• Then add your nuts of choice on top of the nut butter. I like pecans. I didn’t bother to chop them, I just broke them up with my fingers.

• Pour you melted chocolate to cover.

• Add the salt flakes to the top and wait for this to cool a bit before placing in your refrigerator or freezer.

• Once the butter and chocolate are firm, cut into whatever size pieces you wish, and serve!

I was impatient and didn't wait for it to be firm enough. It was still yummy!

I really love the addition of browned butter to this. It lends that caramel-y flavor, and the delicious mouth feel of butter. Salt just makes everything better. Putting it all together in a baking dish makes it less fussy than trying to stuff a date.

I fully realize that there are no measurements for ingredients. This is making something from the heart. It should reflect your tastes, or that of your Valentine's. Experiment, try the combos that you think your loved one will enjoy! I'm sure they will appreciate the effort you put into creating a custom confection just for them.

I'd love to know if you give this recipe a try or if you have your own special take! Thanks for being here and see you soon!