Thursday, December 4, 2008

Buckeye Balls


1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons shortening

1. In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla and confectioners' sugar. The dough will look dry. Roll into 1 inch balls and place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet.
2. Press a toothpick into the top of each ball (to be used later as the handle for dipping) and chill in freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.
3. Melt chocolate chips and shortening in a double boiler or in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. Stir frequently until smooth.
4. Dip frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate holding onto the toothpick. Leave a small portion of peanut butter showing at the top to make them look like Buckeyes. Put back on the cookie sheet and refrigerate until serving.

5 comments:

Capturing Joy with Kristen Duke said...

sounds interesting....and yummy

]\[-]{ said...

Making buckeye balls is one of our family traditions, since one of us grew up in Ohio. Most people don't understand why they are called buckeyes. See here for a short explanation.

You are basically dipping peanut butter fudge in chocolate. The mixture should look like fudge, dry enough to handle, but still glistening. It needs to hold together well.

You can make this recipe with one toothpick: just chill the peanut butter balls without toothpicks. They shouldn't be frozen solid when you dip them; it's easy to skewer them as you dip each one. When you remove the toothpick, you should close the hole it leaves with your finger or the side of the toothpick.

They look best with a thin chocolate shell that almost completely covers the ball. The shortening is important to make the chocolate flowable and keep the chocolate very warm to keep it thin. Use a dip-and-twirl technique to get a small, smooth circle of fudge showing through.

We make these in much larger batches, but we are guessing this recipe makes about 3 dozen candies. Right, Becky?

ALSO: You can make creepy Eyeballs candy (for Halloween?) by dying the fudge and dipping in white chocolate. Go all out by streaking the "whites of the eyeballs" with thinned red food coloring.

erinmalia said...

these were awesome! they were super easy to make (becky's right about the dough being dry. but rolling into balls is still possible.) and they taste just like reese's peanut butter eggs. also, they could easily be done in advance.

because the chocolate is pretty thin, it melts easily. so if you are serving them in a room with a fire, you might need to keep them in the fridge and go get them as necesary. TASTY!

emily said...

how many did they make erin?

erinmalia said...

totally meant to add that. i got 41 balls.