perfect peanut butter balls

I rarely share recipes on this blog, so when I do, you know it’s gotta be good. And these peanut butter balls are that good. The technique can be a little tricky, but the results are well worth it.

Ingredients
1 cup peanut butter
2 sticks butter
1 stick parafin wax
1 lb. box confectioner”s sugar
1 bag chocolate chips
2 tsp. vanilla

Step 1: Melt butter in the microwave (I only had a stick and a half, and it worked fine).

Step 2: Add peanut butter, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla.

Mix well and refrigerate for 15 minutes to an hour.

 Step 3: Roll into small balls and place on cookie sheet. It helps to have really cold hands for this, as well as work quickly to keep the mixture as cold as possible. Warm hands+warm mixture=mushy PB balls. You may need to re-refrigerate the mixture during rolling, which is fine! After they are all rolled out, put your sheet pans in the refrigerator.

Step 5: Melt chocolate chips and wax using a double boiler (or, in my case, a bowl on top of a saucepan).

You want enough water in the saucepan to provide heat, but not so much that the bottom of the chocolate bowl touches the water. Heat over low heat, and stir the chocolate constantly. When almost all the chocolate is melted, remove from heat. What’s the point of the wax? The wax helps make the chocolate shiny and pretty, as well as helps it to stay hard at room temperature.

Melting the chocolate can also be done in the microwave. Start with 30 second increments, stirring after each, then move onto 10 second increments as the chocolate begins to melt. Remove from microwave when chocolate is almost melted; continue to stir chocolate to complete melting. No matter which method you use, do not overheat! Overheated chocolate will lose it’s shine and become thick and muddy (and unusable)!

Step 6: Remove PB balls from refrigerator and dip into chocolate. I have tried many methods of dipping, and I seem to get the best results using a bamboo skewer and spoon. How does this work? If I had a third hand, I’d have taken a pic, but a description will have to do:

Use skewer to pierce PB ball, fill your spoon with chocolate, and carefully turn PB ball in chocolate-filled spoon (over the bowl of chocolate to catch drips). Why not just dip PB ball into bowl of chocolate itself? The PB ball tends to collect waaay too much chocolate this way; using the spoon helps give a smooth, thin coat. Place the PB ball back on the cookie sheet, and use the back of the spoon to cover up the hole made by the skewer.

Again, the harder the PB ball, the easier it will be to coat, so re-refrigerate if necessary. I probably re-refrigerate twice during the dipping process. Once all PB balls are coated, refrigerate until firm.

Ta-da!

You can cover in sprinkles or colored sugar to make more festive (an idea for Easter, perhaps?), but I like them just the way they are.

Thanks for reading!