buckeyes

To thank our wedding party, Dave and I gave them gift bags of foods from various places where we’d lived. Among other treats, there was wine from the Finger Lakes region, where we were living at the time and where we got married, salsa from New Mexico, where I grew up, and there was supposed to be buckeyes, representing Ohio, where Dave is from. I made the buckeyes a week or so before the wedding, packaged them into treat boxes, and painstakingly wrapped each box with a ribbon. But I stored them incorrectly, and when Dave and I were getting ready for the rehearsal dinner, where we gave the gifts, we found that they were…unfit to eat. Ugh, that sucked.

The buckeyes were a pain in the first place, because there was apparently a typo in the recipe I used. Buckeyes are simply peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla, mixed together, rolled into balls, then dipped in chocolate. Unfortunately, the recipe I used calls for twice as much powdered sugar as it should. As a result, I had to scramble and add more peanut butter and butter, and I had twice as many buckeyes as I had intended.

This time went more smoothly, because I knew how much powdered sugar to add. Actually, it was surprisingly easy and only a little bit tedious. The recipe still makes a good amount of buckeyes, 4 or 5 dozen, depending on how big you roll them.

These are certainly the most decadent of the candy recipes I made this week. I’ve always been a fan of the peanut butter and chocolate combination, so I find them a little difficult to resist. Hopefully everybody else does too, so I don’t eat them all myself!

Buckeyes

Makes 4 to 5 dozen

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 (16-ounce) jar creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups (12 ounces) powdered sugar
16 ounces seimisweet chocolate, chopped

1. In a standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter on medium-low speed until creamy. Add peanut butter and continue mixing until fully blended. Blend in vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, gradually add the powdered sugar. Mix on medium-low speed until fully blended. It should have the texture of very thick cookie dough.

2. Roll the peanut butter mixture into 1-inch balls, and place the balls on a parchment- or wax paper-lined baking sheet. Push a toothpick into each ball. Put the peanut butter balls in the freezer and chill until hard, at least 4 hours.

3. Melt the chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of almost-simmering water, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Using the toothpick as a handle, dip each peanut butter ball in chocolate, leaving a section of peanut butter uncoated. Place chocolate covered balls on parchment or wax paper and remove the toothpick. Once the peanut butter has softened, you can use a finger to smooth over the hole from the toothpick.  Buckeyes can be stored, loosely covered, at room temperature for at least a week.