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Love them (if only for their looks), or hate them with a passion, conversation hearts are a classic symbol of Valentine’s Day, as much as oysters, lobsters, or heart-shaped boxes of chocolate—which candy hearts actually outsold the last two years running. There was a shortage of Sweethearts in 2019 (after parent company Necco closed down the year before), and in 2020, many of the candy hearts will be turning up blank. Luckily, it’s surprisingly easy—and fun—to make DIY candy conversation hearts at home.
As with most relationships, a little patience is required and things will get messy, but you’ll be rewarded with something that makes you smile.
You’ve likely been aware of those tiny, brightly colored, message-bearing candies made of compressed chalk and corn syrup (to hazard a guess) for your whole life, but you might be surprised to learn just how long ago they were born. Necco, manufacturers of the eponymous wafers, started making Sweethearts in 1866, though they didn’t take their classic miniature heart form until 1902. Their slogans changed with the times, but they remained a constant on the seasonal candy scene.
According to Business Journal, conversation hearts were the best-selling Valentine’s Day candy in 2018, “pulling in $1.8 billion in sales and taking the top spot for the second year in a row”—and yet, now they are no more. Well, that’s not quite true. You can get chalky, tooth-threatening, multicolored candy hearts with printed messages on them from other companies, and Spangler Candy Co. (which bought the now-defunct Necco), has stayed true to their promise to bring back the original Sweethearts in 2020—although, as previously mentioned, they’ve run into some production problems this year.
But you don’t need any of them anyway, because it’s seriously easy to make your own!
Just follow our Easy DIY Conversation Heart Candy recipe. It does take time, a bit of special equipment, a lot of powered sugar, and some amount of patience, but no special skills (and no candy thermometer—which is honestly the only reason I was willing to try it).
It’s a great activity for kids, or crafty cohorts your own age, and having help definitely makes it quicker to churn out the hundreds of hearts you’ll get from the recipe. Put some music on and the time will fly (for the most part). Is it really worth it? I think so, and I don’t even like candy hearts—well, not eating them, although these homemade versions are far more palatable than what I remember fishing out of bags in grade school.
Despite the fact that it’s just basically two pounds of powdered sugar held together with a quarter cup of lemon-lime soda and a sprinkle of gelatin, plus the food coloring and flavor extract combos of your choice, these homemade hearts are tasty (if sweet), and are certainly charming as all get-out. Plus, you get to customize all your messages, so these make great gifts.
Our recipe will take you through all the steps in detail, but below, find some additional notes on equipment and technique based on my own experience making them.
You might not absolutely need a stand mixer for this project, but I would not want to make it without, as the candy dough gets extremely stiff and sticky. I’ve never heard my KitchenAid’s motor strain before, but it still did the job in just a few minutes.
For rolling the dough, I used the same battered wooden pin that’s produced our family’s sugar cookies for the last four decades. It worked fine, but did need to be liberally powdered with sugar—and I did not get perfectly even thickness in my dough, but it was good enough for me. This little fondant rolling pin is an intriguing option I’m interested in trying next time; the plastic surface is supposed to be non-stick, and it comes with bands that help you achieve the perfect thickness. While it wouldn’t be what I’d choose for cookies, it looks like it could be ideal for making these candies.
Another tool I wish I’d had when I made these (and have since invested in!): a bench scraper, good not only for cutting your big ball of candy into smaller portions to work with, but for scraping up any stuck-on scraps off your work surface between rolling out batches of the tinted dough, so you don’t get pink specks in your green hearts and so on. (I just used a butter knife last time, but this wider blade probably would have made it much easier.)
To cut hearts large enough to write on—without having to struggle—you’ll want to get 1-inch metal cutters; I bought this set of bento cutters with one heart and four flower shapes (which would be perfect for spring-themed candy). Intended for cutting fruit and veggies into cute little shapes, they were perfect for the candy dough—but any mini cookie cutters will also work.
I also bought these much smaller heart-shaped cutters because I wanted a mix of sizes, and they were fantastic for the job (though intended for fondant, so also good to have if you like to decorate cakes and cupcakes). It’s worth checking local craft and baking supply stores to see if you can snag them at a lower price. The tiniest one was too tiny to bother with for this purpose, I thought, but I was happy to have the other two sizes.
Our recipe calls for edible markers to decorate the hearts, so I bought these and they work great—but I wasn’t totally happy with my handwriting, so I upgraded to the stamp option below. That said, writing on the hearts with markers would definitely be the quicker option, if time is of the essence!
This is the stamp I used to decorate my hearts, and while it required a fair amount of fiddling with the plastic wheels and rubber belts, it worked well! It has eight rows of characters; each row contains all 26 letters of the alphabet (in all caps), numbers 0-9, and a few symbols (. / # & etc.). I really wished there was an @ symbol and I couldn’t get the N, M, or W to print reliably clearly, but otherwise, was quite satisfied with the effect I achieved.
(I did originally buy this cookie stamp, but it was too slick and rigid to work for printing with food color “ink”—it might work to emboss the hearts while they’re still soft, so I plan to try that next time, but it seems even less user-friendly, since you have to swap out the letters each time, instead of simply turning the wheels on the rubber stamp.)
Speaking of fiddling, I preferred the results I got when I used one of these tiny paintbrushes to apply the food coloring to the rubber stamp, instead of dipping it into the “ink”—and it was also handy for touching up the occasional spots where the stamp didn’t transfer full letters to the candy dough (which was mostly because some of my hearts were uneven—but they still looked adorable, so don’t worry about being perfect!).
These are almost literally endless, and entirely up to your imagination.
I just used six different bottles of food coloring already in my pantry, mostly cheap Kroger brands in the standard liquid form, but the “red” (which never colored the dough deeper than a pretty, dark pink, despite my Instagram filter up above) was a Wilton gel paste; both types worked fine, so use whatever you have or prefer.
You can buy various shades, or mix your own colors—and make as few or as many colors of candy hearts as you like; it just depends on how many portions you divide the dough into. I made six, as our recipe calls for, but to be honest, my green and yellow hearts looked almost indistinguishable in the end.
For flavorings, I used what I could find at the local Fred Meyer and in my cabinets: banana extract, almond extract, orange extract, mint extract, lemon extract, and violet liqueur (because I thought it would be a great match for the purple food coloring).
Sadly, the liqueur wasn’t really noticeable with so much sugar in the dough, but you might try one with a stronger flavor to begin with than the relatively quiet violet. Rose water and orange water should also work—you can always take a nibble of dough and add more extract if need be (though too much liquid will make the dough looser and you’ll end up kneading more powdered sugar in to stiffen it, which will in turn mute the taste).
I liked the punch of cool mint flavor from the green hearts, but my partner said they tasted like toothpaste, so YMMV. While I was initially most suspicious of the banana extract, it made the blue hearts taste just like Runts, so I highly recommend it for fellow fans of that fake-fruity candy. You can find tons of other flavoring options online, so go as wild with these as you want to!
Above all, have fun with these, and prepare to delight your Valentine (or insult an ex with a particularly pointed message if that’s what you want to do)! Candy hearts will beat forever, Necco or no, because they live on in all of us.
As George Bernard Shaw once said, “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” Which is exactly why we say skip the overpriced roses for her and ditch the cologne for him and instead give your Valentine what he or she really wants: chocolate, pasta, and other treats they’ll probably dig into immediately after unwrapping. Plus, all of these Valentine Day food gift ideas are under $50 (we can’t say the same for a bouquet of flowers—that gets expensive, fast). Below, the best Valentine’s Day gifts that won’t break the bank and will hopefully inspire your love to share.
Related Reading: The Cutest Valentine’s Day Gifts Under $25
If the recipient of this gift is displeased, you must dump them immediately. Everyone knows seasonal Reese’s are one of the best things to grace our planet—bigger in size and voluptuous in peanut-butter-to-chocolate ratio, there is truly no wrong way to eat a Reese’s. Especially when it comes from the heart, as a heart (and a whole bag, at that).Buy Now
Sure, you could make heart-shaped pasta for a very on-theme meal, but porcini mushroom-infused trumpets are much more sophisticated (and flavorful). The ruffles add a romantic touch but not so much that you couldn’t serve them at a singles-only dinner party. Give these as a gift to your favorite cook, or do one better and serve them up on the plate with a bacon cream sauce.Buy Now
Some like it hot. If that’s the case with your taco-loving, can’t-get-enough-heat Valentine, give them these good-looking bottles of hot sauces, all handmade in Canada.Buy Now
Let’s face it, chocolate rarely fails. Especially on Valentine’s Day and especially when slow-cooked caramel made with high-quality fleur de sel sweetens the deal. These hearts are finished with a sprinkle of salt, offering the exact salty-sweet combination dessert lovers crave, and the lustrous rainbow colors are gorgeous to boot.Buy Now
Let them know they add glitter to your life with this divine combination of dark chocolate coated in pink chocolate and studded with peppermint candy. Take a bite and you’ll get a lovely mouth shock—a smattering of pop rocks.Buy Now
Raw honey is that kind of thing you wish you had in your pantry but never end up buying because of sticker shock. This six-pack of raw honeys with superfoods like ginger and turmeric will tell your lovebug what you’ve been meaning to say: you’d like to do sweet things together.Buy Now
Don’t make dinner plans for the night—and feel 100 percent okay about it. Stay in and start with dessert: Warm up this huge chocolate chip caramel cookie to share and fall in sweet, tender love at first bite. You can choose from several inscriptions to let them know how you feel.Buy Now
Treat your sweet to a morning in Paris without leaving the house. You get 15 chocolate-filled croissants in this batch, which you should take out of the freezer the night before Valentine’s Day to thaw. Come morning, head straight for the kitchen and bake these bad boys right away, so your beloved can wake to the scent of pastry. If you prefer, you can also order plain croissants.Buy Now
Have these indulgent strawberries delivered to your girlfriend or boyfriend or…mom. Pulling this off requires a bit of pre-planning, as delivery can take anywhere from five to seven days, so make sure to get your order in at least a week before February 14th.Buy Now
Perfect for the caffeine addict in your life, Bean Box curates the best small batch coffee producers and delivers beans right to your door. Plus, your significant other will think of you every morning as they come to with his or her favorite roast. There are multiple subscription options, but this tasting box includes artisanal chocolate to sweeten the deal. (You can also order some Bean Box samplers on Amazon. And check out our guide to the best coffee subscriptions for even more options.)Buy Now
Perhaps your boo is anti-Valentine’s Day because they don’t identify as a chocolate person. Show your love you know them best with this fancy tea trio that includes a green matcha blend, a white lemon ginger, and a chai. All will keep them warm on the dreariest of winter days left ahead.Buy Now
A Champagne-filled Valentine’s Day is certain to be a good one, so take it to the next level with this Sugarfina gift set. It comes with three cubes of bubbly-flavored gummy bears and two festive flutes for sipping the real stuff (or, you know, Prosecco) alongside. Cheers!Buy Now
Check out our Valentine’s Day 2020 Gift Guide headquarters for even more ideas for every budget, taste, and personality.
The noms are in. The snubs have happened. The time is running out to decide what to serve at your 2020 Oscar party. The Academy Awards never fail to cause controversy and this year’s nominations feel particularly regressive, but we can’t wait to devour all three hours of the show alongside a perfectly curated Oscar menu.
Save the puns for your less sophisticated friends and go with a menu meant for a refined palate. OK, I take it back, an Oscar party isn’t an Oscar party without a dumb pun or two. Whatever you do, make sure that while your friends are biting their nails for Greta Gerwig’s reactions, they’re also biting into something yummy. See our complete menu below:
Helmed by recent Golden Globe winning director Bong Joon-ho, “Parasite” explores class and the upsetting extremes between the haves and the have-nots in modern day South Korea. It was tempting to suggest peach pie as a menu item, because one character’s peach allergy is pivotal to the plot, but it would have been a disservice to Korean cuisine and the most symbolic meal of the movie.
Amidst chaos, one character is forced by her rich boss to make jjapaguri, a traditionally cheap Korean comfort dish consisting of ramen noodles and jajangmyeon noodles (similar to udon, hence the subtitled moniker for the dish, “ram-don”). However, the woman of the house requests the ram-don be served alongside strip sirloin. This traditionally cheap comfort dish being paired with an incredibly expensive and good cut of meat at a housewife’s whim really hammers home the overall movie’s theme of socioeconomic lifestyle gaps. It’s also delicious. Get our Jjapaguri recipe.
Don’t knock it ’til you try it. Amy, the youngest and often most hated sister in Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women,” is poignantly played by Oscar nominee Frances Pugh in Greta Gerwig’s humanizing version of the novel. Vindictive, scrappy, and artistic, Amy notoriously gets paddled by her schoolteacher for drawing his likeness in exchange for pickled limes, a popular treat at the time from Africa. The limes represent the March family’s lack of excess and their ability to get by and fit in with those better off however they can. Try these spicier Pickled Limes on their own, or as a condiment to an Indian dish like biryani.
Pope Benedict, played by Anthony Hopkins, is a solitary, cold, conservative man. Soon-to-be-Pope Francis, played by Jonathan Pryce, is a warm, progressive man of the people. They must learn to work together during a transfer of power for the better of their beloved Catholic church. But what’s the one thing they can agree on? Pizza. In fact, one of the most impactful scenes happens over a couple of local Rome slices, so it only makes sense to serve pizza in its friendliest form: dip! To truly honor the film’s marriage of ideologies, this dish must be served with Fanta and fresh oregano. Get our Pepperoni Pizza Dip recipe.
Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland is a dream. Based on the play “End of the Rainbow,” “Judy” tells the tale of the upsetting and depressing end of legend and icon Judy Garland’s life. The film overall is very sad, implying that because of her fame and talent, Judy had a tragically hard existence. One bright spot in the film is when a lonely Judy attends the apartment of two of her biggest fans, a male couple who explain how much she means to them and why. In a rare scene where Garland seems happy, the trio laugh off one partner’s terrible omelette skills as his eggs turn scrambled.
This lobster and caviar egg dish is meant for royalty. Judy deserved nothing less. Get David Burke’s Lobster Scrambled Eggs with Caviar and Crème Fraîche recipe.
In one of the funnier scenes in a rather dim film, whilst privately fighting a custody battle with Adam Driver’s character, Scarlett Johansson’s character’s lawyer, played by goddess Laura Dern, moves effortlessly from ripping Driver’s character apart to blithely giving her lunch order. Dern’s character casually orders a kale salad as Driver’s character is confounded on who to be, let alone what to eat. No order could have been more L.A., so this low-carb leaf’s for you, Laura Dern. May you win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as you did the Golden Globe. Get our Roasted Butternut Squash and Kale Salad recipe.
Making waves and taking names, “Bombshell” is quite the polarizing film this season. With Charlize Theron at the center of it all as Megyn Kelly, the film portrays the sexual harassment scandal that rocked a nation, a network, and a media monarch. The women in the film all have golden hair, hence the blondies, but just like a blondie is as a dessert, these women were underestimated. In a scalding take on the beginning of the #MeToo era and Fox News, “Bombshell” shows the strength of women through togetherness. Turns out the taste of justice is sweet, as long as it’s made with butterscotch. Get our Butterscotch-Pecan Blondies recipe.
What makes this war flick so different is its primary focus on the story of two young soldiers’ mission to deliver a message over enemy lines to save thousands of lives. As the entire movie is about Dean Charles-Chapman and George McKay’s time spent on the front lines, our take on a trench cake seems appropriate. The dense treat was sent to soldiers during the first World War. Because some ingredients like eggs were hard to get, the cake used baking soda and vinegar to help it rise. This gingerbread uses traditional ingredients, but here is the recipe the government released to the public if you want to know exactly what the Lance Corporals in the movie would have noshed on. Get our Gingerbread with Stout recipe.
After Quentin Tarantino’s win for Best Screenplay at the Golden Globes, eyes are certainly on his script for the Academy Awards. Although many reviews held contempt for the film’s rambling nature and length, Brad Pitt is a front-runner for Best Supporting Actor. If you sat through all two hours and 40 minutes of the film, you know that frozen margaritas might as well also be billed as a supporting act. Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt often hold salt-rimmed glasses and the frozen concoction even plays a small part in the film’s twist ending. Cheers!
If you haven’t seen all the nominees yet, see how to watch the Oscar nominated movies at home before the big event.
Could your bread machine give your Instant Pot a run for its money? Maybe not, but here are 15 surprising ways to use your bread machine for things that aren’t bread (or jam).
Specialty appliances have no room in my kitchen, where I’ve tossed out quesadilla makers, strawberry hullers, and even a garlic press in order to whittle down my appliances to only the essentials. But one appliance you won’t find me parting with anytime soon? My bread maker.
Don’t let the name fool you, this seemingly single-use appliance can do so much more than merely bake bread. Bread machines come with a built-in mixing paddle and are able to cook at fairly low temperatures, which means you’ve basically got a slow cooker, instant stirrer, and mini oven all in one machine that won’t heat up your kitchen.
My Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso Plus can make everything from gluten free bread to pizza dough, but it can also whip up a few less expected recipes as well. From scrambled eggs to slow roasted chicken and dumplings, check out these alternative uses for your bread machine.
No need to heat up your kitchen for hours simmering your favorite beef stew recipe. Your bread maker will heat and stir your stew for you on the “Jam” cycle and can even bake some dollops of biscuit dough right in the mix…if that’s how you roll with your stew.
Leave room in your oven for important party snacks by using the bread maker’s “Jam” cycle to heat up and stir your favorite artichoke dip recipe.
Although it may take longer to make scrambled eggs in the bread maker than on the stovetop, you’ll have fluffy eggs in roughly 15 minutes without so much as lifting a spatula. Drizzle in a bit of oil before pouring your egg mixture into the bread pan and setting the machine on the “Jam” cycle, but you’ll want to wait to add cheese until the eggs are on the plate to lessen the mess.
Related Reading: 8 Unexpected Uses for Your Loaf Pan | 17 Muffin Pan Recipes That Aren’t Muffins
Stirring risotto can be a tedious task, but with the bread maker’s automatic stirring paddle(s), you’ll have a delightfully creamy risotto by only having to press the “Jam” button once.
This Japanese treat is made with sweet rice flour, and typically involves multiple steps and countless hours to make, but your bread machine specializes in flour and can whip up a batch of mochi (like this butter coconut mochi recipe from Zojirushi) in a few hours.
The loaf that comes out of your bread maker doesn’t need to be doughy. Your machine can actually make a meatloaf that would make your grandma proud. Check out Zojirushi’s meatloaf recipe, or, better yet, call your grandma and use her recipe (and if she was a terrible cook, see our meatloaf recipes).
The bread maker’s “Jam” cycle was designed to heat and stir for anywhere from one to two hours, making it easy to whip up a quick fruit preserve (pectin optional), but toss in some walnuts, sugar, cranberries, and cinnamon and you’ll have a delicious cranberry sauce for a holiday gathering.
Just place all your wet ingredients in first before adding in the veggies and meat for your favorite chicken and dumplings recipe, then let the machine simmer and stir your soup for an hour (longer if you’re using raw chicken) before adding in cut up homemade or pre-made chunks of buttermilk biscuit dough. The dough will bake right into the soup, and you’ll have a creamy and satisfying comfort dish without heating up your kitchen.
Using a bread maker can give you a homemade “instant” pudding that doesn’t come from a box. Add (in this order) 2 cups heavy cream, 1 ½ cups whole milk, 4 large egg yolks, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¾ cup of sugar, 8 ounces chopped semisweet chocolate, 3 tablespoons cornstarch, and ¼ cup dark cocoa powder to the bread pan, set it on “Jam,” and get ready for some warm, fudgy pudding.
Related Reading: How to Make Fresh Whipped Cream to Top It Off
The only thing your bread maker can’t do for this recipe is boil the noodles to al dente, but pour in some crushed tomatoes, salt, fresh herbs, and homemade meatballs and let the mixture simmer for a few hours before pouring over some fresh pasta (which you can also make in some bread machines).
A beautifully rich, creamy cheesecake with a crisp graham cracker crust is child’s play with your bread maker. You’ll add the graham cracker crust last, after an hour of baking on the “Cake” cycle with this strawberry cheesecake recipe from Zojirushi.
Not all bread makers come with a yogurt function, in which case you’ll need to pre-heat the milk to 113 degrees Fahrenheit on the stovetop before adding natural live yogurt (look for “live active cultures” on the label) and transferring the mixture to mason jars. Remove the bread pan and place the mason jars directly in the bread maker. Set the machine on its lowest setting (around 105 degrees Fahrenheit) to allow the yogurt to ferment for anywhere from 3-8 hours. Top your fresh yogurt with some jam or homemade granola.
Udon noodles are perfect for soups, stir-frys, or even just served cold as is, but homemade udon noodles have a distinctly chewy and thick texture that takes any recipe up a level. Use this udon recipe from Zojirushi to make a fool-proof dough with your bread maker. (If you have a Panasonic, try this recipe.)
Feel free to toss your rice cooker out, since your bread maker can double as a rice cooker by using the “Bake” setting and letting a mixture of rice and water cook for an hour. It can also make a super fragrant rice pudding.
Whether you use fresh or frozen fruit, the bread maker will transform a few ingredients into a simple dessert with little effort on your part. Remove the paddles before pouring in the ingredients, especially if you’re using this bread machine peach cobbler recipe from King Arthur Flour.