I absolutely love making Valentine’s Day treats—honestly, I’d rather whip up some sweets than receive flowers! Homemade goodies are my favorite, and I enjoy sharing them with family, friends, and neighbors. One of my go-to packaging options is the adorable  5 Mil Stand Up Pouches Pink & Clear | PackFreshUSA.

For freeze-dried treats, I use a temperature range of 135-150°F. It’s so much fun to take fun candies and turn them into Valentine’s treats!

Charleston Chews and other nugget-style candies

These candies puff up when freeze-dried. The chocolate coating doesn’t freeze-dry, so I let the candies cool off, and once the chocolate hardens, I pack them into the small and medium Pink/Clear Stand-Up Pouches Pink / Clear 5-mil Stand-up Pouches The candies swell and the nugget becomes crunchy, these are super cute and festive!

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Caramel M&M Candies

These are super easy to freeze-dry, and the caramel expands really well. The shells break apart and remind me of little hats on the caramel. This was a request from my youngest son. Again, I allow the chocolate to set before I place them in the adorable 5 Mil Stand Up Pouches Pink & Clear | PackFreshUSA. I used the small and medium. 

Freeze-dried Strawberries then dipped in chocolate.

OH, my what can I say other than you have to make these cute treats that taste so sweet. I freeze-dried the strawberries after I cleaned and sliced them up. I removed the top, trying to create a heart shape in the strawberry.

Since these strawberries were more tart than sweet, I sprinkled strawberry Jello on them. Let them freeze-dry in my freeze-drier on the regular setting. I always add 12 extra dry time to ensure the strawberries are fully dry.

Once dry I dipped them in melted chocolate, I followed the directions on the Melts but added about 1 heaping table of coconut oils.

I dipped the strawberries in the chocolate about ½ to 3/4ths the way. Leaving some red showing. I let the chocolate partly cool and added festive/love type sprinkles. I love them in the 5 Mil Stand Up Pouches Pink & Clear | PackFreshUSA, 5 Mil Stand Up Pouches Black & Clear | PackFreshUSA, and 5 mil Silver/Clear Stand Up Pouches | PackFreshUSA.

There are so many wonderful candies that can be freeze-dried, or fruits. Banana would be great to freeze-dry and also dip in chocolate. Yogurt that is freeze-dried in form and dipped in chocolate. Regardless, no matter what you place in these cute bags for your Valentine, I am sure it will be a hit!

Happy prepping and Happy Valentines,

Ola D Griffin

Long-term Food Storage Expert

Customer Service, Safeguard Brands, Inc. dba PackFreshUSA

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