Valentine’s Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bars + KitchenAid Mixer Giveaway

Happy Monday! This is an especially happy Monday, because I’ve teamed up with some fabulous bloggers to bring you an awesome Valentine’s Day giveaway – A KitchenAid Mixer! Yup, one lucky winner will receive this beauty in all her cherry red glory. Just enter the widget at the bottom of the post and answer the question, “What are your Valentine’s Day plans this year??”

Big props to Anna at Crunchy Creamy Sweet for taking the time to organize everything – she rocks.

My favorite Valentine’s treat totally depends on my mood, but this year I’m feeling chocolate all the way, surprising considering the fact that usually I want absolutely nothing to do with those huge heart-shaped boxes filled with tiny little chocolates. The ONLY chocolate I’ll eat that comes from a box are these guys – hands down best chocolate in the entire world, and you won’t be finding them at any drugstores.

My idea of the perfect chocolate dessert aside from those little artisan gems, includes raspberry, whipped cream or…..peanut butter. Since the hubs just about dies over these peanut butter balls I make around the holidays, I knew he would go insane over these homemade Reese’s bars. And I’m telling you, they taste even better than the real thing. Bible.

Bonus?? They’re ridiculously easy to make and only consist of five ingredients (not including salt) you probably already have hanging out in your pantry: Butter, peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, salt, dark brown sugar and bittersweet chocolate. Also, lucky for you I did a little trial and error to make sure they’re even easier for you to make than they were for me.

So the directions on the original recipe say to make the peanut butter base first, chill, then pour the chocolate on top, chill again and then cut into bars. This works if the chocolate doesn’t harden too much or if you aren’t going to cut shapes out of the candy like I was. After the second chill time, I found it very difficult to cut the candy into little heart shapes. So what I’d suggest doing is to make the peanut butter base, chill it, then invert it onto a cutting board and cut your shapes out, THEN pour the chocolate over it and chill again, so you don’t have to worry about the chocolate breaking apart when you try to get your perfect little shapes later.

I seriously don’t think I can ever buy a homemade Reese’s again knowing how quick and easy they are to make home –perfect, considering the fact that if it’s homemade it’s fat free, right?

Stay tuned on Wednesday for one last Valentine’s Day related post – appetizers! In the meantime, don’t forget to enter below for your chance to win a brand new Kitchen Aid mixer and please check out all the other killer food blogs participating in the giveaway sharing their V-Day treats as well.

1. Raspberry Coconut Cheesecake Quinoa Bites with Dark Chocolate Glaze from Food Faith Fitness
2. Strawberry Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts from Girl vs. Dough
3. Pink Vanilla Cupcakes from Crunchy Creamy Sweet
4. Valentine’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars from Cooking for Keeps
5. Chocolate Covered Strawberry Tarts from Chelsea’s Messy Apron
6. Cream Cheese Funfetti Cookies from The Messy Baker
7. Cinnamon French Toast Lattes from A Kitchen Addiction”
8. …… from Baker by Nature
9. Dark Chocolate Pancakes from Eat. Drink. Love.
10. Red Wine Creme Brulee from Diethood
11. Bid Dipper Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies from That Skinny Chick Can Bake!
12. Peppermint Bark Brownies from Jen’s Favorite Cookies
13. Berry Cheesecake Bars (skinny, no-bake) from Roxana’s Easy Home Baking

*Recipe adapted just barely from Hedy Goldsmith’s Baking Out Loud