Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

It’s looking like Christmas around here.

Our tree is up.

Our Christmas tree ("Wow!" says Baby Cupcake)

Our stockings are up.

And the stockings were hung out of baby's reach.

Our advent calendar is up and running.

Christmas meets Noah's Ark with the animals coming in twos...

Christmas cards are coming (and I love them!).

I love Christmas cards!

And the Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls are ready.

These Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls are not going to last long around here.

Sometimes we call these Buckeyes though I’m sure the folks from Ohio would throw a fit and explain that true buckeyes don’t have chocolate all the way around. So weird. Why in the world would you not put chocolate all the way around??

A big deal: Normally I use toothpicks or spoons or skewers to dip the peanut butter in the chocolate. This year I decided to treat myself to real dipping tools. They are amazing! I can’t believe I waited so long. I feel so professional. After dipping all of the peanut butter, I searched the kitchen for what else I could put on my dipping fork to coat in chocolate. Dangerous.

A few notes: The JoyOfBaking.com recipe calls for shortening to be combined with the chocolate. I’m sure this does something like makes the finished product prettier or longer-lasting or something really important. Since I avoid using shortening (I usually substitute butter but that didn’t seem to make sense here), I just skipped it altogether since it was just a small amount anyway. Seems fine to me! Peanut butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, butter, and chocolate — how can you go wrong?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

2 cups peanut butter
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 bag Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips

Step 1: For the peanut butter mixture, use a double boiler (or the microwave) to heat the peanut butter, butter, and salt; heat until the mixture is just soft. Remove from heat. Stir in the vanilla. Stir in 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar. Add remaining sugar until a stiff dough is formed.  Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Place on parchment paper on a cooking sheet or large baking pan with lid. Store in fridge or freezer for several hours or overnight before moving on to Step 2.

Step 2: In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate. Use your fancy dipping tools or toothpicks to dip each peanut butter ball and allow drips to drip back in chocolate before returning the peanut butter ball to the parchment paper on the cookie sheet/large baking pan. Refrigerate for a couple of hours to set the chocolate. Can be stored for up to 2 weeks (or can be frozen).

Source: adapted from JoyOfBaking.com