Canadian Budget Binder

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls have been a tradition in Mrs.CBB’s family ever since she was a little girl. She would help her grandmother make these peanut butter balls covered in chocolate, so delicate for the Christmas Holidays. When her granny no longer could make this recipe for peanut butter balls she passed it down to Mrs.CBB who has made them ever since. Now we have made them together ever since we’ve been married. We have made a few changes to granny’s recipe by adding in some green cherries and vanilla although it really is a no fail recipe.

The great thing about peanut butter balls recipes are that they are a no-bake recipe and budget friendly. So if you don’t happen to have an oven to bake and wanted or needed to bring a Homemade Christmas Treat to a party you could easily make these on the stove top. I warn you it can get a bit messy when melting chocolate for dipping the Peanut Butter Balls sometimes called buckeye balls candy.

Alternatively you can switch the recipe up and instead of peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate you could make white chocolate covered peanut butter balls instead. You could do both and they would look lovely on a tray together or gift wrapped for your mates.

How Do You Make Peanut Butter?

Well I didn’t make the peanut butter for this recipe although it is getting costly in some shops but still affordable. I remember when it $1.99 for a huge jar now it can run upwards of $4.99 or $3.99 on sale. Considering the price to make these homemade are far cheaper than if you buy them from the shop. If you wanted to make your own peanut butter because you don’t want to invest in a container you could easily buy what you need at the bulk store or make it yourself. It’s an easy inexpensive recipe to make and much healthier. We already had some jars on hand from a food study we did so we decided to use them up.  Buy the amount of roasted peanuts that you need and put them in a food processor with some peanut oil or vegetable oil, salt, and sugar and whiz away. It’s that easy. Check out the full recipe on how to make peanut butter and try it for yourself.

Directions to Make Peanut Butter Balls

In our peanut butter balls recipe we have red and green cherries, walnuts, pure vanilla, chopped fresh dates,peanut butter,butter and icing sugar. That’s it, not too many ingredients. To dip the chocolate peanut butter balls we used a fork and toothpicks and about 2 boxes of semi-sweet bakers chocolate or we have used 2 bags of Hershey milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate chips. It’s up to you what you like chocolate wise. We were fortunate to find the bakers semi-sweet chocolate at Dollarama in 2 different cities for only $2 compared to $3.99 and up at the shops.

Here we Go!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of red maraschino cherries chopped small
• 1/2 cup of green maraschino cherries chopped small
• 1/2 cup of fresh dates chopped small then soaked in water for 10 minutes then drain (if you don’t like dates elminate them)
• 1 cup of peanut butter * yes you can use chunky if you like
• 1 cup chopped walnuts ( make these small so bang about if you have to in a plastic zip bag)- great way to get frustrations out.. beat your nuts!
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla
• 2 cups confectioners sugar also known as icing sugar
• 4 tablespoons softened butter
• 2 boxes of semi-sweet Bakers Chocolate or Bags of Chocolate Chips

Tools:

• Cutting Board
• Knife
• Mixing Bowl
• Metal bowl or double boiler for chocolate
• toothpicks
• fork
• Parchment Paper
• 3 Baking Sheets
• Spatula

Preparation: Yield Approx: 36 Balls

• Chop all of your ingredients that need to be chopped small and have them ready in bowls.
• In your mixing bowl add the peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and icing sugar and stir until combined

• Add in the cherries, dates and walnuts and stir again until combined

• Once we make the recipe we take the bowl of ingredients and pop them into the refrigerator for about an hour to harden the mix up a bit. It makes it easier to work with when it’ s cold.
• Take the bowl out and on parchment lined baking sheets start rolling small-medium sized balls uniform in shape. Don’t make them too big as they are meant to be bite size or two-bite peanut butter balls.

• Once you have the balls rolled and on the tray put the tray into a freezer to freeze for about 1 hour. I know seems like a lot of hours to make these and it is but it’s super easy to make and worth the effort.

• Once frozen you are ready to dip. We take a few out of the freezer at a time so they are still frozen when we dip as it yields the best results for us. Drop one into the melted chocolate which you melt in a double boiler or in our case a metal bowl over a pot of boiling water. Lower the heat once the chocolate is melted and you can stream it off your spatula. You don’t want to get any water or steam into your chocolate or you risk it seizing up.

• Drop your peanut butter ball inside the chocolate and with your fork gently pick it up (don’t stick the fork in the peanut butter ball) have the ball sit on the fork. Stick the toothpick into the top and once the toothpick is secure you can twist the peanut butter ball off with your fingers from side to side on the baking tray lined with parchment paper.

If you are thinking this is a tedious job it is, but again, worth it as you just can’t buy homemade like this.

• Once dipped and back on the parchment  paper we use a toothpick dipped in chocolate to fill in any gaps that we may have missed and the hole where the toothpick was.

• We freeze the peanut butter balls for about 2 hours or until solid. Take your balls out about 1 hour before serving to bring them to room temperature although we are known to pop them in our mouth straight out of the freezer.

Congratulations to Jennifer Taylor for winning my Facebook Contest. When I shared my picture of my chocolate peanut butter balls I asked the fans to comment what their favourite Holiday Treat was!!

Jennifer Taylor -My favourite holiday treat is my home-made chocolate marshmallow log! It’s so yummy! ~Congrats on the 2500 fans & Thx for the contest!

That’s it my friends! I hope you give our Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls a try and let me know what you think. Next week we move on to Coconut Balls… don’t miss that Sunday Recipe. Happy Holidays from my family to yours!
-Mr.CBB

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