No-bake chocolate covered Peanut Butter Balls recipe, also known as chocolate dipped buckeye balls, are the best tasty treat perfect for the Christmas season. Learn how to make these homemade Reese's peanut butter cups that are so easy and made with only 3 ingredients plus the wonderful flavor of vanilla!
This tasty old fashioned peanut butter goodness dipped in chocolate makes the perfect no bake summer dessert, or a great festive Christmas dessert topped with red and green sprinkles. You can't go wrong with this dessert all year long, even Joanna Gains approves.
Add a little crunch to make crunchy peanut butter balls by mixing in rice Krispies, cornflakes, or even coconut flakes. Or just enjoy them plain, they make a simple gluten free dessert everyone can enjoy.
Making these are a bliss and we love that they are no cook! A simple fudge like dessert that kids love help making. My kids love rolling the peanut butter mixture into dipable balls.
Try our other chocolate dipped recipes like chocolate covered pecans, chocolate covered blueberries, and chocolate covered cashews. If you are looking for a Christmas style treat try making these with our Christmas Crack recipe, they make great gifts.
Pair it with this tasty Sweet and Salty Popcorn recipe for a fun snack night.
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Why We Love This Recipe
- Versatile- Make these tasty honey balls any way you'd like by adding Oreo, or roll them in cereal.
- Kid friendly: My kids love to help make these and eat them! It's great way to get the whole family involved.
- No-bake: This tasty treat does not require baking, which is one of the reasons why they are so convenient to make. All you need to do is mix the ingredients together, shape them into balls, and chill them in the fridge before you're ready to eat.
- Christmas Treat: They make a great Christmas treat during the holiday season. Top them with cute sprinkles and enjoy them at a party or give as a neighbor gift.
- Minimal ingredients: This recipe only has 3 ingredients plus the vanilla for added flavor. These ingredients are easy to find and don't require any specialized equipment to prepare.
- Portable:The perfect for on-the-go snack since they can be stored in an airtight container and are easy to transport.
- Customizable: Customize them to your taste preferences by adding in different ingredients such as nuts, dried fruit, or coconut flakes. You'll have endless variation for this recipe.
Ingredients
- Peanut Butter- Skippy, jiffy, jif are the best brands to use. Don't use natural peanut butter for this recipe, it will make it too runny and hard to form the balls.
- Butter- Salted butter is preferred and make sure to soften it ahead of time.
- Vanilla- Makes for a great flavor addition.
- Powdered sugar- Gives the peanut butter and butter a great dough like texture.
- Melting wafers or chocolate- For best dipping experience I recommend Ghirardelli. Often off brand chocolate have weird melting properties making it hard to have a clean beautiful dipped ball.
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
- Whip the peanut butter, butter, and vanilla until it's light and fluffy. You'll want to use an electric hand mixer.
2. Add in the powdered sugar and mix. It will get a little tougher to mix and will make a dough like mixture.
3. Form the peanut butter dough into small balls. Place on a parchment paper.
4. Stab the balls with a toothpick and dip them into melted chocolate. Place them back on the parchment paper to set.
Hint: mix the peanut butter and butter together until completely smooth. If it is lumpy at all, your completed peanut butter balls will be lumpy too.
If the chocolate cools and starts becoming to thick, simply place back in the microwave in 10 second intervals until desired consistency is reached. I re- microwaved the chocolate about 4 times while making these!
Substitutions
- White Chocolate - These tasty no-cook balls can be dipped with white chocolate instead of milk chocolate.
- Powdered Milk- You can add in powdered milk instead of powdered sugar to get the same consistency but to have less sugar. Substitute at a 1:1 ratio.
- Almond Bark- Make these dairy free by using almond bark instead of traditional chocolate.
Variations
- oatmeal- To add rolled oats and make this oatmeal style decrease powdered sugar by ¼ cup and add ¾ cups oats, add more peanut butter if necessary to loosen.
- With rice krispies (rice crispy)- Give a little crunch by decreasing the powdered sugar by ¼ cup and adding ¾ cup rice Krispies, add more peanut butter if necessary to loosen.
- Graham cracker- For a honey ball taste, reduce powdered sugar by ¼ cup, then add ½ cup crushed grahams.
- Coconut - add in sweetened coconut flakes to the peanut butter mixture.
- Corn flakes- Decrease the powdered sugar by ¼ cup and add ¾ cup corn flakes, add more peanut butter if necessary to loosen. Or roll the peanut butter ball in the corn flakes instead of dipping in chocolate.
- Dates- To sweeten without sugar, try adding ½ cup blended dates to the peanut butter instead of powdered sugar. The texture will be different and you may need to add a cereal or rolled oats to thicken it up.
- Cheerios-Decrease the powdered sugar by ¼ cup and add ¾ cup cherries , add more peanut butter if necessary to loosen.
- Oreos- Make these Oreo inspired by crushing up ½ cup of Oreos and adding it to the peanut butter mixture. Roll as usual and then add sprinkle more crushed Oreos on top of the melted chocolate for a decorative look.
- Pretzel- To add a pretzel taste, you can either crush up ½ cup of Pretzels and add it to the mixed "dough", or you can add a pretzel rod to the dipped balls to use a edible lollipop stick.
- No chocolate- Make this a honey ball with no chocolate by using the powdered milk, or oatmeal variation. Or just skip the melted chocolate portion and enjoy these sweetened peanut butter bites.
Equipment
This simple 3 ingredient recipe uses Parchment Paper, a baking sheet for letting the peanut butter balls set, and electric hand mixer, a Microwave Safe Bowl and a Mixing Bowl.
Storage
Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. Or store them on the counter, in an air tight container, for 5 days.
You can also freeze this tasty treat and a freezer friendly container for 2 months. Enjoy frozen or thaw partially in the refrigerator before serving. If you thaw them all the way they get goopy.
Top tip
I recommend doing this in a cool environment, if possible. About 72° F or less. If it's warmer, the peanut butter balls can get goopy, making them harder to form into balls and harder to dip in the chocolate.
FAQ
Making this tasty no bake dessert is so easy. It uses only 3 ingredients and vanilla to add an additional tasty flavor. To make this tasty dessert simply add peanut butter, butter, and vanilla to a mixing bowl. Add in the powdered sugar until a dough is formed. Roll the dough into balls and dip them into melted chocolate. Let set and enjoy!
Yes! They are so yummy when frozen, but eat frozen or nearly frozen/ slightly thawed or they will get gooey.
Making peanut butter balls is easy and a great dessert to let kids help with. Mix together peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Roll the formed dough into balls. Dip them in chocolate and enjoy!
The best way to dip peanut butter balls is to place a toothpick into the formed ball of dough. Dip the ball into the melted chocolate, holding onto the toothpick. This will help you get all the sides of the dough. Place on a parchment paper to rest and set.
Try refrigerating the dough for 30 minutes to harden the dough. Or you can coat your hands in oil before rolling. If you need to, add more powdered sugar to the mixture to thicken.
This tasty treat is so simple and easy it's made with 3 simple ingredients. Using peanut butter like Skippy or Jif, whip the peanut butter, softened butter, and vanilla together. When a smooth mixture is formed, add the powdered sugar to make a dough like substance. Form small peanut butter balls and dip them in melted milk chocolate. Let the chocolate set and enjoy.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with Peanut Butter Balls:
Recipe
Easy Peanut Butter Balls
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup peanut butter not natural
- 5 Tablespoons butter softened, I used salted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 10 oz melting wafers or chocolate I recommend Ghirardelli
Instructions
- Using a mixer, beat the peanut butter, butter and vanilla together on high until completely smooth, 1-3 minutes. Beat in the powdered sugar on low until well combined, around 30-60 seconds. Form the mixture into 1" balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Chill for 20-30 minutes. Mine made about 40.
- In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the chocolate in 30 second intervals, stirring after each interval until fully melted. Using a toothpick or a cake pop stick, poke it about halfway into the peanut butter ball. Dip in the chocolate until completely covered, then place back on the parchment lined baking sheet. Microwave the chocolate for 15 seconds if it starts to thicken to make it thin again.
- Dip all the balls then place remaining chocolate in a ziploc baggy and snip off a tiny corner. Use the chocolate to make designs on the chocolates, if desired. Chill for 10 more minutes then enjoy!
Notes
- Use a scale to get the measurements exact, for more uniformity in size, if desired.
- Store at room temperature (but not above 76°F) for up to 5 days.
- Freeze for up to 2 months. We recommend if you freeze them, to only partially thaw them before serving as they may get a little gooey and/or weep a bit.
Andrea
No-bake chocolate peanut butter balls are so tasty! My family loves making them. It's like a chocolate covered buckeye!