Buckeyes, aka Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Growing up in Ohio (the Buckeye State), one of the favorite chocolate treats are Buckeyes. Typically only Ohioans (or people in surrounding states) know them by that name. I've mentioned eating Buckeyes to people up here in Connecticut and no one knew what I was talking about, LOL! 

I decided the other day that I wanted to try making them myself for the first time. I thought Buckeyes would be the perfect addition to add to the goodie boxes I'm making for my husband's co-workers! 

I found a few different recipes online but couldn't pick out which one to use, so I compared a few of the recipes & changed a few things around and came up with my own recipe! Truthfully I was pretty apprehensive that they would turn out but to my surprise, they did!! And by my side while I was making them, my sous chief, Leah! 

If you want to give this recipe a try, just be sure you have a few hours to make it!! 

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup softened butter
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 package(8 squares) Bakers chocolate

Directions 

1. Combine everything but the Bakers Chocolate in a mixing bowl with a spatula. It makes a minute or two for all the ingredients to be mixed completely together. Once mixed together, put the bowl in the fridge until the mixture until it starts to become firm. 
2. Roll mixture into approximately 3/4 inch balls and stick a toothpick into the top of each ball. Sit them on a cookie sheet with wax paper on top. If the mixture is sticking to your hands, you will want to put it back in the fridge for a bit. I actually had to put the cookie sheet back into the fridge every once in a while to firm them back up a few times while rolling out all the PB balls. 
3. Once all the PB balls are rolled, put the cookie sheets into the fridge. And leave them there for at least 30 minutes.
4. In a double boiler, melt the Bakers Chocolate (I actually use a glass bowl sitting on top of a sauce pan with a little boiling water in the sauce pan and the chocolate in the glass bowl). Swill the toothpick back & forth a few times to get some of the access chocolate off of them. If the PB balls start to slip off the toothpick, you'll need to put them back in the fridge again.
5. Once the chocolate is completely melted, dip the PB balls into the chocolate except for the very top, that way the ball resembles a buckeye nut. Place back on the cookie sheet. After a while, the balls may start to soften back up, so you'll need to place the cookie sheet back in the fridge until the firm back up again. 
6. After you have dipped all the PB balls into the chocolate, you'll want to place the cookie sheets back into the fridge until they're firmed up (again, LOL!) and the chocolate it completely hardened. Then you can remove the toothpicks from each Buckeye and take your finger and gently cover up the hole. 

PS, go Buckeyes!!! O-H-I-O!!!