Chocolate

Buckeyes for the Kids Table

December 13, 2009
0
0 Ratings
  • Serves 3 dozen (about)
Author Notes

This is more of a Christmas candy then cookie, but they are fun to make. Who doesn't love anything that tastes like a peanut butter cup! My brother and I used to make these for our church holiday parties. They were always a hit at the kids table! —Kelsey Banfield

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Ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons good quality vanilla
  • 3 pounds powdered sugar
  • 1 pound butter, unsalted
  • 2 pounds crunchy peanut butter (smooth is OK, too, but I prefer crunchy in this recipe)
  • 24 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 bar of paraffin wax
Directions
  1. Mix together the vanilla, powdered sugar, butter and crunchy peanut butter. Roll into 1" balls with the palms for your hands. Place on a tray or platter and allow them to cool in the fridge.
  2. In a double boiler, or glass bowl set over a pot of simmering water, melt together chocolate chips and wax. Working quickly, dip peanut butter balls into the chocolate with a toothpick until the peanut butter is totally coated. Place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and place them in the fridge to chill. Once they have chilled and the chocolate is set they are ready to eat.
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Home cook, food blogger, cookbook author, wine lover, avid traveler, and mother of two young children. Check out my books: The Naptime Chef: Fitting Great Food into Family Life (2012), and The Family Calendar Cookbook: From Birthdays to Bake Sales, Good Food to Carry You Through the Year (2015), Running Press.

5 Reviews

Maria T. December 19, 2009
Hi Kelsey, I am a bit lost here. Do you use wax like candle wax or is it some special edible wax? Never heard of the technique, will go searching the internet to understand.
mariaraynal December 18, 2009
Save some for the adults, please!

And, fascinating on the wax.
Amanda H. December 18, 2009
I've never heard of wax in chocolate -- do you know where this technique comes from? And what effect does it have on the chocolate?
Kelsey B. December 18, 2009
From what I know, this is an older candy-making technique. Wax is often found in older recipes as well as a few newer ones, I've also added wax when making peanut butter balls, and have read about it in recipes called for dipping fruit or pretzels in chocolate. The wax helps the chocolate liquify well, dry much harder and gives the candy a nice sheen. I don't think it affects the taste that much - it really does taste like a peanut butter cup. However, this is not the kind of peanut butter cup found at Maison du Chocolat because it is only melted chocolate chips, not high quality chocolate. It is an interesting technique for sure, I still do it because I like the shell to be extra hard on these and it makes the melted chocolate chips so nice and glossy. If you look up older candy recipes that calls for dipping things in chocolate I think you might find this technique in there. Also, sometimes I've seen people serve Buckeyes on a stick so they are like lollipops for kids.
Amanda H. December 21, 2009
Really interesting -- thank you for explaining.