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Peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate. Real buckeyes are nuts that grow on trees and are related to the horse chestnut.
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time30 minutes
Chilling time30 minutes
Total Time1 hour 30 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: chocolate, peanut butter
Servings: 30 pieces

Equipment

  • medium bowl
  • large cookie sheet
  • double boiler (or a metal or glass bowl that fits into the pot, while staying at least 2" above the bottom)
  • pot (to go with the double boiler)
  • wax paper
  • 30 toothpicks
  • kitchen scale

Ingredients

  • 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips (about 1-½ cups)
  • 6 oz confectioner's sugar (about 1-½ cups)
  • 4 oz peanut butter (about 7 tbsp)
  • 2 oz butter (half of a stick)
  • 1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Make and chill the balls (60 min)

  • Get the medium bowl, large cookie sheet, and wax paper
  • Place the wax paper onto the cookie sheet
  • In the bowl, mix together the confectioner's sugar, peanut butter, cow butter, and vanilla extract.
    You can use a mixer, but it's better to knead it by hand. The dough will look dry.
    6 oz confectioner's sugar, 4 oz peanut butter, 2 oz butter, 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
  • With a measuring teaspoon (meaning, a 1 tsp spoon) take a scoop of dough, roll it in your hand into a roughly 1" ball, and place it on the wax paper.
  • Repeat until the dough is all turned into balls.
    Each ball should weigh about ⅓ oz, and the dough is about 12 oz, so you should end up with at least 30 balls.
    One person will do about 2 balls per minute, so this takes about 15 minutes.
  • Press a toothpick into the top of each ball, to be used later as the handle for dipping
  • Chill in freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.

Dip the balls (30 min)

  • While the balls are chilling, add 1-2" of water to the pot
  • Put the pot on the stove and turn it on high until the water starts boiling
  • Once it's boiling, turn it down to medium-low so that it just barely simmers
  • Set the double boiler or bowl on top of the pot.
  • Add the chocolate chips to the double boiler or bowl
    12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
  • Stir them pretty frequently with the rubber spatula until they melt into smooth chocolate.
    If it's your first time melting chocolate: don't get any liquid into the chocolate chips and don't let the bowl touch the water. Might be good to watch a video on the technique.
  • Take the balls out of the freezer
  • Dip chilled peanut butter balls into the chocolate by holding onto the toothpick. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top to make them look like natural buckeyes.
  • This produces about 3 Buckeyes every 2 minutes, so about 20 minutes to dip them all
  • Put back on the cookie sheet and refrigerate until serving
  • Get some bananas, strawberries, rice krispy treats, marshmallows, or whatever else goes well with chocolate and make some fondue with the leftover melted chocolate.

Notes

Adapted from AllRecipes
Curious why this recipe uses weights for dry measures? See the Weights page.