A Valentine's Day treat - Puffed Rice Hearts with two kinds of Chocolate

This small but delicious treat requires only two ingredients: chocolate and puffed rice! They are prepared in no time.

If you are still looking for a heart-shaped treat for Valentine's Day, I have a deliciously simple recipe for you! And one that doesn't require any baking at all: Puffed rice with two kinds of chocolate hearts!

So it's just the thing when you're short on time but want a homemade treat. And it's also perfect for allergy sufferers because the chocolate hearts are fructose-free! 

These delicious hearts are also suitable for other occasions such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, birthdays, name day, and just in between! Just give them a try!

🥘 Ingredients

• milk chocolate or dark chocolate
• white chocolate
• puffed spelt (aka Dinkel wheat / hulled wheat), amaranth, or rice

See the recipe card for quantities.

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🍽 Equipment

• Water bath or tempering device to melt the chocolate - if you work a lot with chocolate like me (chocolates and such) I recommend getting a tempering device. It makes melting much easier and more enjoyable!
• 1-2 silicone heart mold(s)

🔪 Instructions

Now let's get started preparing these gorgeous heart-shaped delights! I started with white chocolate. First, melt the chocolate, either in a water bath or with a tempering device. 

Water bath: if you're using a water bath to melt, you'll need two different size pots. Fill one pot 3-4 finger-widths with water and place the second, smaller pot in it. The second pot should not touch the water! Now put the chocolate to be melted into the upper, smaller pot and melt it over medium heat while stirring over the rising steam.

Tempering device: Add the chocolate to be melted to the tempering unit and set it to the appropriate melting temperature. White and milk chocolate: 104 °F // 40 °C, dark chocolate 122 °F // 50 °C.

Add half of the puffed rice to the melted chocolate. I used puffed spelt in this recipe here. If you want your treat gluten-free, use puffed rice, quinoa, or amaranth! 

Mix the puffed spelt with the chocolate and create an even mixture. Pour the mixture into silicone heart molds and chill them in the fridge for one hour. 

Now it's time for the second type of chocolate. In our case, the milk chocolate. Melt it as well and mix it with the remaining puffed spelt. 

It all depends on the size of the heart molds. If you have relatively shallow heart molds, I recommend using two pans just to be safe! With the silicone heart molds I've got at home, it turned out that I could make both the white chocolate hearts and the milk chocolate hearts with only one pan.

Now fill the milk chocolate puffed rice mixture into the remaining heart molds and chill them for one hour as well. 

After the cooling time, you can very easily press the hearts out of the silicone mold and serve. So delicious, I tell you! 

🥜 Substitutions

• Vegan - use high-quality dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate or white chocolate.
• Gluten-free - use puffed rice, puffed quinoa, or puffed amaranth instead of spelt. Learn more about Amaranth grain in this post!

📖 Variations

You can make lots of delicious variations here. Be it by replacing the chocolate with peanut butter, maple syrup, or caramel. The preparation process is very similar here, and the different variations are just delicious!!! Give them a try!

• Peanut butter - a bit stickier and tarter in taste. Can be used in the permanent diet with fructose intolerance. Not suitable in the period of abstinence. Fructose / glucose ratio: 1.00.
• Maple syrup - the Canadian experience! So good! But since maple syrup is not quite suitable for fructose intolerant people, you should keep eating it rarely. Fructose/glucose ratio: 0.99.
• Caramel - one of my favorites! Fructose / glucose ratio: 1.00.

Wanna make caramel at home? Check out my milk chocolate salted caramel truffle recipe for instructions! 🙂

🌡️ Storage

The puffed rice chocolate hearts should be stored in the refrigerator, in an airtight container. They could last there up to a week if you have not eaten them all in the meantime anyway! 😉

They are not suitable for freezing.

💭 Top tip

If you want your recipe vegan, use either vegan or dark chocolate.

People (like me) with fructose intolerance need to be careful when buying puffed rice! Check that there is NO honey added! Of course, the same goes for fructose syrup or any fructose-containing edibles.

Therefore, it is best to use pure puffed rice, in which no additional sweetener is added! So you are on the safe side, and your bowels will thank you!

If you love this kind of crispy treat, I highly recommend trying out Emilie's caramel rice krispie bars!

📖 Recipe

⛑️ Food Safety

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

For further information, check Safe Food Handling - FDA.