Candy recipes both fascinate and terrify me. I'm a big fan of things like nougat and caramel and, yes, even molasses taffy, but I haven't ever had the time to learn to make them, and I hear that mastering the various ball stages takes some practice.
This is the best I can do, candy-wise. They're sort of like homemade Reese's peanut butter cups. Mom got this recipe ages ago from . . . somebody.
1 cup peanut butter (Mom always insists on creamy but one of these days, I'm going to go wild and use chunky)
1 stick butter or margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
Four ounces graham crackers, pulverized (About nine crackers, or one plastic-wrapped block)
12 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 bar paraffin (Gulf Wax, in the canning aisle)
Combine the peanut butter, butter, sugar, and cracker crumbs, and knead them into a dough. Break off small pieces of dough and roll them into balls. Place on cookie sheets and freeze while you prepare the chocolate.
Melt chocolate and paraffin together in a double boiler.
Using spoons, roll frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate--I usually put the ball on one spoon and then spoon chocolate over it with the other, for better control. Be careful--don't let the steam from the boiler burn your hands. If you want to be official, leave a bare peanut butter "eye" so they look (sort of) like real buckeye nuts.
Update: I remade these a few days ago using 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 stick butter. I might reduce the butter again by half because the texture was awfully . . . buttery, but they tasted more like peanut butter, which I consider an improvement. I also used half semisweet and half dark chocolate chips, and double-coated them (coated, re-chilled, re-coated) both to avoid wasting the chocolate and so there would be a better chocolate-to-peanut-butter ratio.
This is the best I can do, candy-wise. They're sort of like homemade Reese's peanut butter cups. Mom got this recipe ages ago from . . . somebody.
1 cup peanut butter (Mom always insists on creamy but one of these days, I'm going to go wild and use chunky)
1 stick butter or margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
Four ounces graham crackers, pulverized (About nine crackers, or one plastic-wrapped block)
12 ounces chocolate chips
1/2 bar paraffin (Gulf Wax, in the canning aisle)
Combine the peanut butter, butter, sugar, and cracker crumbs, and knead them into a dough. Break off small pieces of dough and roll them into balls. Place on cookie sheets and freeze while you prepare the chocolate.
Melt chocolate and paraffin together in a double boiler.
Using spoons, roll frozen peanut butter balls in chocolate--I usually put the ball on one spoon and then spoon chocolate over it with the other, for better control. Be careful--don't let the steam from the boiler burn your hands. If you want to be official, leave a bare peanut butter "eye" so they look (sort of) like real buckeye nuts.
Update: I remade these a few days ago using 1 cup powdered sugar and 1/2 stick butter. I might reduce the butter again by half because the texture was awfully . . . buttery, but they tasted more like peanut butter, which I consider an improvement. I also used half semisweet and half dark chocolate chips, and double-coated them (coated, re-chilled, re-coated) both to avoid wasting the chocolate and so there would be a better chocolate-to-peanut-butter ratio.
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