Peanut Butter and Chocolate Buckeyes

Printable version

Since I can remember, every Christmas my Mom has made buckeyes. She makes a number of sweet delicious treats during the holidays but these yummy peanut butter and chocolate delights are hands down my favorite. There have been a number of occasions in the past where I have single-handedly wiped out entire trays of buckeyes.

Mom got this recipe more than 30 years ago from a woman she used to bowl with and it has remained a holiday tradition in our house ever since.

For this version, I add my own twist. Traditional buckeye recipes call for the top portion of peanut butter to be exposed to make the treat look like a buckeye nut. This will cause the peanut butter to dry out after a couple days. To avoid the dry peanut butter my mom coated the entire surface with chocolate. I have taken this smart idea a step further and coated the top portion of the buckeye with a peanut butter topping. It might not look like a buckeye, but it does taste like a delicious holiday treat!

BEHIND THIS BITE

This is the treat I look forward to most at Christmas, and I'm happy that I was able to include it here in my collection of recipes. When I started this, my full intention was to make traditional buckeyes – with the top part of peanut butter exposed. My Mom had always covered the entire treat, and I asked her why. She said she did that so the peanut butter wouldn't dry out. I thought that was a good idea, but I had already made a batch. That's when I thought that I would put another coat on to cover the peanut butter, but instead of using chocolate I used melted peanut butter chips to retain the look. After covering the top I realized that they no longer looked like buckeyes, but I was ok with that. I think that the peanut butter covering dripping down the side gave it a winter like hat - perfect for a Christmas treat.

While writing the 200-word introduction for the newspaper version, I wrote a line that I eventually had to leave out. It was another of my pig-out statements – one of a thousand that I have come up with since starting the column. That's the beauty of the web – no space constraints!

Here is the line about me scarfing on buckeyes in the past that didn't make the print version:

"I must have looked like a relapsing sugar junky who had broken into a Reese’s Candy Factory."

Eat well, cook often ...