Buckeye Balls are a classic no bake peanut butter and chocolate sweet treat that the kids can help make and are perfect for the holidays!
The time has come!!! This is the time of year where I share 12 Days of Holiday Treats, and this is Day 1 of 12!
MY OTHER RECIPES
I started doing this 12 Days series two years ago when I started my blog. It wasn’t too difficult back then because every year, I made at least 6 different kinds of holiday treats to package up and send to family. So, all I had to do was come up with a few more recipes and, BAM!, there’s my series. Every year I made the same exact recipes to send out. It was my thing. But, when you have a recipe food blog, you can’t really do that, so last year I came up with 12 new recipes to make. Some became new favorites, and all received a thorough critical review from my opinionated little sister. This year has been especially challenging mostly because of, well… life. I became the newly appointed PTO president this year, have had a steady flow of family portrait sessions even though my goal was to back away from people photography almost entirely, etc. You get the picture. But I started this thing a couple years ago and I will continue doing my marathon holiday treat making if it darn near kills me! All of the recipes this year won’t be able to come out without a few savory recipes popping in, so I’ll be interupting your sugar overload train of thought occasionally until completion. Okay, onto the recipe!
Did you know… The National Peanut Board estimates it takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter. That’s approximately 45 peanuts per ounce of peanut butter. If your family buys peanut butter in those large 40-ounce mega-jars, each one of those jars takes a whopping 1,800 peanuts to make! That’s your fun fact for the day! As you well know, I make a lot of food. Like, a lot. So much that my family rarely even goes out to eat. That’s why I found it especially funny when the first time I had heard of Buckeye Balls was when my sister-in-law told me that she made them. I guess they’re wildly popular and I’m not really sharing anything original today – just my version. Funny, because we used to eat something like this when we were kids. We called it “peanut butter in a cup” and it was basically peanut butter mixed with an obscene amount of sugar. We used to put sugar on everything (cereal, grapefruit – you name it). That probably explains my serious addiction I’ve been trying to kick for the last three and a half decades. Anyway, these peanut-y treats took me back to my youth and who doesn’t love peanut butter and chocolate?
This is definitely one of those recipes you can have your kids help with, even if you’re an overbearing kitchen control freak like myself. Let them have fun and then you can fix their odd shaped creations once they go wash their hands! Be sure to check out the video of me and my son making these Buckeye Balls. Also, you’ll want to scroll all the way down past the recipe to see a visual guide to all of my holiday treats from the past two years.
Watch me and my son make these Buckeye Balls here:
This recipe uses pure vanilla extract. Did you know you can make your own homemade vanilla extract? It makes the perfect gift too. Watch how in the video below.
- 1 1/2 cups (12 ounce jar) peanut butter
- 1/2 cup (1 cube) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups confectioners sugar
- 9 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips
- 3 tablespoons butter
- In a large bowl, mix together peanut butter, butter, and vanilla until completely smooth.
- One cup at a time, add powdered sugar. Start by mixing with a spoon and then mix with hands to form a thick dough. For the last cup of powdered sugar, be sure to add it slowly one heaping spoonful at a time until you reach your desired consistency.
- Shape tablespoon sized balls and roll them smooth in between your hands. Set on parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for two hours for freeze for at least 15 minutes.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine chocolate and remaining butter and microwave at half power in one minute increments, stirring each time, until everything has melted and is completely smooth.
- Dip each peanut butter ball in the chocolate. You make use one or two toothpicks to help and then just smooth over any holes the toothpick leaves in the ball. Return the dipped peanut butter balls back to the parchment lined sheet and allow to set.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freeze until you devour them.
To see all of 2014’s holiday treats, click the links below:
Five Minute Fudge | Holiday Sugar Cookies | Peppermint Candy Cane Cookies
Peppermint Chocolate Pie | Hazelnut Lemon Curd Thumbprints | Homemade Peppermint Marshmallows
Chewy Molasses Sugar Cookies | Easy Petite Palmiers | Triple Threat Peppermint Brownie Bites
Toasted Coconut Cookies | Walnut Spiced Rum Balls | Mexican Chocolate Truffles
To see all of 2015’s holiday treats, click the links below:
Easy Candy Cane Chocolate Truffles | Cherry Almond Thumbprints | Easy Brown Butter Pecan Fudge
Toasted Macadamia Nut Cookies | Salted Vanilla Bean Caramels | Chocolate Peppermint Swirl Cookies
Lynne’s Cream Wafers | Mini Pecan Pie Bites | Eggnog Poundcake
Christmas Tree Corn Flake Treats | Devil’s Food Crinkles | Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies
Hi there,
I was just wondering how much of the butter you put into the peanut butter and how much you put into the chocolate. From your video, it looks like maybe only 1 tablespoon goes into the chocolate. I didn’t have any sound when I watched the video, so I apologize if you indicated the amounts there.
Thank you!
Hi Emily, I list butter twice in the ingredients, but I just edited the recipe to show that the first amount of butter goes into the filling and the second part goes into the chocolate. Sorry for the confusion! Krissy