a spoonful of sugar...

or just a  mouthful of peanut butter chocolate deliciousness!

So I know this is a bit off topic but since I enjoy sharing my favorite things with you all I wanted to share my great grandpa’s buckeye recipe!  I just made a big batch of these delicious candies. If you haven’t had them before they are basically a peanut butter candy dipped in chocolate.  They are super easy to make and everyone will love them. (Given they don’t have a nut allergy.) These are my favorite around the holidays. Let’s just consider this my Christmas gift to y’all! So here is the recipe. ENJOY!

What you’ll need:

-1 ½ cups of creamy peanut butter

-1/2 cup of margarine/butter (room temperature)

-1 tsp vanilla

-1  16oz package of confectioners’ sugar (10x sugar)

-1 6 oz package of semi sweet chocolate chips

 -2 tablespoons of shortening

- wax paper                        

Here’s what you’ll do: (it looks like there are a lot of steps but it’s really not too bad)

1.)    First you’re going to want to line a baking sheet with wax paper.

2.)     Then go ahead and cream your peanut butter and margarine.  Then mix in the vanilla and sugar. But be careful! especially when using an electric mixer! Mixing powdered sugar can be quite a mess! if you have little patience like me and just turn it on poof! you're covered and its snowing powdered sugar! It’s going to form stiff dough.  (I have a Kitchenaid mixer I use the flat beater or dough hook, but my great grandpa swore mixing it by hand was the best.)

3.)    Now you’ll take about 1 tablespoon of dough and shape them into balls and place them on the wax paper lined baking sheet.

4.)    Once you’re done with that go ahead and place them in the refrigerator for now.

5.)    Next if you don’t have a double boiler make sure to melt the chocolate at a low heat to prevent burning it.  I use a double boiler or rather two pots stacked atop each other with water in the bottom one. Place the chocolate chips and shortening in the pot (the top pot with out water) stirring until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. 

6)    Remove the peanut butter balls from the refrigerator and use a toothpick to dip each ball into the melted chocolate and place back on the sheet. One you’ve dipped them all refrigerate 30 minutes or until chocolate is set.

This recipe freezes well so fell free to make it ahead of time and store in a freezer safe storage container! Enjoy!