Easy Peanut Butter Balls Recipe
Back in October, I asked on my Facebook page and on Instagram for family favorite holiday recipe submissions from all of you. I said that if I thought the recipe looked good I would make it and possibly post it on my website in December. And here we are. This recipe comes from Ashley C. and she told me she and her mom make these every year and said about the recipe, “I think it is from a church cookbook of my Grandma’s. They are sort of like buckeyes, but crunchy and so much better!” I loved the crunchy peanut butter twist as well. It gave them great texture and I also added sprinkles. Because of course I couldn’t resist holiday’ifying them even more. These chocolate peanut butter balls are so easy they’re no-bake, which I especially appreciate around the holiday season when I am already baking so much. They remind me of the Chocolate Peanut Butter Stacks I made last holiday season that went viral on social media. Peanut butter, chocolate, sprinkles, no-bake, easy. The original title of this recipe was Martha’s Candy (aka Peanut Butter Balls). I did some digging and there are recipes out there for ‘Martha Washington Candy’ and this seems to be very similar to many of those. The ratios of peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs, confectioners’ sugar, etc. vary slightly.
What’s in Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls?
To make these chocolate-covered peanut butter balls, you’ll need:
Unsalted butter Confectioner’s sugar Graham cracker crumbs Crunchy peanut butter Vanilla extract Salt Chopped pecans Chopped chocolate Holiday sprinkles
How to Make Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
To make these peanut butter balls with graham crackers, simply combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Then, use a small cookie scoop to form the peanut butter balls. Set the peanut butter balls in the fridge while you melt the chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted, carefully dip the peanut butter balls into it using two forks or a toothpick. Once all the peanut butter balls have been dipped in chocolate, top them with holiday sprinkles before the chocolate fully hardens. Let these chocolate peanut butter balls rest at room temperature until set.
Can I Double This Recipe?
I halved the recipe that Ashley sent and still made 48 balls. That was plenty of rolling and dipping for my daughter and I on a Saturday morning but if you’re making these no-bake peanut butter balls for a cookie exchange, the recipe is easily doubled, tripled, etc.
Can I Prep These in Advance?
Most certainly! These chocolate-covered peanut butter balls should stay good up to a week at room temperature.
What Type of Chocolate Should I Use?
I used half Trader Joe’s 72% Pound Plus and half Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Pound Plus. Semi-sweet chocolate chips may be substituted, although I prefer melting actual chocolate bars because the chocolate coating doesn’t set up as fast and melts smoother than chocolate chips do.
Tips for Making Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
I didn’t need to add any additional nuts like the pecans Ashley uses because my mixture was on the dry side and it couldn’t have handled any more dry ingredients. But that could be because I used extra crunchy peanut butter. If your mixture is too wet/too dry, that’s easily rectified with more graham cracker crumbs or nuts/more peanut butter. I definitely recommend using a peanut butter like Jif or Skippy rather than a natural peanut butter because you don’t want it separating. I included the original recipe in the Notes/Tips section below if you’d like to see the little tweaks I made.
More No-Bake Dessert Recipes:
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