My history with peanut butter is a sad and tragic one. I grew up infatuated with peanut butter and would put it on everything and anything imaginable, no doubt eating it in some form everyday. I even had a peanut butter and jelly sleeping bag when I was little. Then about three years ago I started to develop asthma symptoms and when I saw an allergist and had tests done, it turns out I was allergic to peanuts (among a variety of other things). So I have not eaten peanut butter since June of 2004. I don’t have an allergy so severe that I cannot touch it or smell it, since of course I was eating it right up until the day I was tested and I never came close to death. So I live vicariously through others, taking in huge whiffs of peanut butter when I open the jar to make peanut butter treats for everyone else.
This weekend I got started on my holiday baking and goodies-making and kicked it off with buckeyes. These, along with peanut butter blossoms, are the most requested Christmas treats from my sister. Of course it’s pure torture for me to smell them and not be able to eat them!
Some tips on making buckeyes:
- I find it best to mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl with a wooden spoon. It will take some time to all come together and takes a lot of patience and elbow grease!
- The mixture WILL be pretty dry and crumbly, so when shaping the balls you will need to press the mixture together before rolling it into a ball.
- In order to avoid the toothpick holes at the top of the peanut butter balls, an alternative would be using something like a dipper for coloring eggs to lower the balls into the chocolate.
- This recipe yields 7-8 dozen buckeyes.
Buckeyes
(Source: family recipe)
1 ½ cups peanut butter
6 cups powdered sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
¼ cup shortening
1. Line cookie sheet with wax paper. Mix together butter, peanut butter, sugar, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a large bowl.
2. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Set them on prepared cookie sheet and insert toothpick into each ball. Chill in freezer until hard, approximately 30 minutes.
3. Melt chocolate chips and shortening over medium-high heat. Remove the pan from heat. Dip balls in chocolate and place back on cookie sheet. Refrigerate until chocolate is set, approximately 2 hours.
Store in airtight container in refrigerator.
Tags: Candy, Chocolate, Peanut Butter
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Cute! I’ve never seen these treats before! They looks super yummy!
these look incredible chelle! i have seen these in magazines before and yours look truly gourmet. how sad that you had to stop eating something that you enjoyed so much
One of my all-time favorites! My great aunt used to make a very complicated version of these. I did get her recipe, but I eventually found one similar to yours. Much easier and so, so good. Happy holidays!
These look so good! And being the good friend that I am, I will gladly eat any chocolate / PB combinations for you you.
Ooh these look yummy. Could you eat cashew butter as a substitute? I think it’s similar to peanut butter…
I grew up making buckeyes with my mom at Christmas time. They tend to get very soft and hard to work with, since they’re so full fo fat! We always rolled the balls, stuck in toothpicks, then froze them so that the toothpicks stayed and the pb balls didn’t fall into the chocolate.
A dear friend CAN NOT have peanut butter. I found that Sunbutter comes very close in taste to peanut butter but behaves equally well for baking cookies.
Giant Eagle does carry it.
Penny, thank you for the tip on Sunbutter!
Another way you can do the chocolate which my grandmother used to do when making hers was use a whole bag of semi-sweet chocolate morsels (Toll House) and then 3/4 bar of Parrafin of wax. The chocolate does not get too thick and it adds a nice bite to your chocolate. She also used to use 2 cups of JIF Peanut Butter. I think it makes a big difference. Even though these are time consuming to make they are DELICIOUS!
Thank you for the additional tips Angie!
Since you’re starting your holiday baking now does that mean you can freeze the buckeyes now and they’ll be good by December? I never seem to have enough time to make all the things I’d like to make during the holidays so I would Imagine this is the way to go – start early and freeze it. . . I may need to purchase a freezer!
Thank you for any help on the freezing of all baked items plus the candies.
Hi Joann, I’m not actually starting my holiday baking yet; I like to start early, but not this early! These do freeze well, but I would say for up to 1 month.
Hi again Michelle! Just a quick question: I’m going to be making these and happen to have some of the butter flavored Crisco shortening on hand (I think it’s the best for pie dough as opposed to butter). Do you think the flavor would be terrible if I used that instead of plain shortening?
I think that would be okay to use. Enjoy these!
Made these this morning – if you add an extra 1/2 cup of peanut butter your mixture will not be crumbly. I mixed it up in my KitchenAid and it worked beautifully. Thank you for the recipe – I am going to have some very happy friends and neighbors this Christmas!
Just use your finger to smooth over the toothpick hole. It’s a tip in a lot of Buckeye recipes I’ve seen. (So is the ‘freeze the balls with the toothpicks in them, then dip’ tip) From Ohio, & these are VERY popular there!
I stumbled across your website today while looking for a decent sandwich bread and I haven’t been able to leave! So far I’ve added a bunch of things to my “To Bake” List
I too had a love for peanut butter until a couple of years ago when I realized every time I ate anything with peanuts I had a difficult time breathing 
It made me so sad when I first found out and I’ll admit even now I still crave the occasional PB M&M. I haven’t really heard of many other people developing adult onset allergies like I did. Any who, the reason I’m sharing is that I found a decent PB replacement- SoyNut Butter (made in peanut free facilities). I know it doesn’t exactly sound tasty but it brings me right back. . . I also find that it reacts in baking etc the same as PB; I’ve been known to switch it for PB in many recipes and no one noticed!! Maybe I’ve just been PB deprived for too long but I really enjoy it and wanted to share in case you haven’t discovered it yet!
I’ve always added about a cup and a half of Rice Krispies to my Buckeye recipe – they have a little crunch in them and the RK’s don’t add weight to the mix. You might need to adjust (add) a little bit more peanut butter for the dry RK’s to keep your dough together. And yes, pat a finger dipped in a little powdered sugar over the toothpick hole, you’ll never know it was even there.
My daughter-in-law introduced me to your website. I absolutely love it!!
I made your turkey, muchroom & wild rice soup with the left over turkey from Thanksgiving. It was delicious!!
I would like to make nut rolls. apricot rolls for Christmas do you have a recipe for any of these? My mom always used to make them but her recipes are very hard to understand and since she’s no longer around, I can’t ask.
Thanks – Andrea
Hi Andrea, I do have a recipe for nut rolls (from my mom’s best friend): http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2011/01/10/nut-roll-recipe/. I hope you enjoy!
Yum! I love these. I put crushed Rice Krispies in mine to give them a little bit of crunch.
My best friend jokingly told me she wanted a whole batch of buckeyes for Christmas – they’re a candy from her childhood, but I’d never heard of them. I was so happy to find your beautiful website and I tried this recipe out this weekend. These are fabulous!! Everyone who has tried them loves them, and I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to get a box full of these!! Thank you for the recipe!
I am an alumni of Ohio State University-thus a true Buckeye. When visiting family in St.Paul at Thanksgiving, I know I can ‘t get off the plane without a container of candy Buckeyes! Yum!