Recipe: Nancy's Peanut Butter Balls

A couple of days before Christmas, Bailey and I decided to do a little baking and candy making. We made Snickerdoodles, Gingerbread, Oreo Balls, and Peanut Butter Balls. MERCY. I will be paying for that decision at the gym for a very long time!

Today I want to share the recipe we used for Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls. One of our store customers brought a bag of these treats to a card class in December 2013. At that time, I had only tried my grandma's peanut butter balls. Over the years, Grandma had started scrimping on quality ingredients and the result was nothing to write home about. But Nancy's peanut butter balls were incredible! 

Unfortunately life got complicated last year at Christmastime and I didn't get a chance to make them until this past Christmas. Peanut butter balls are one of Spouse's very favorite treats, and he agrees that these are the best ever!

I haven't made a lot of "dipped" treats in my life, so I took a few pictures to document how easy it is. I used my stand mixer to mix up the "filling" for the balls. (Funny side story: I originally intended to make a 1/2 recipe because really...who needs 72 peanut butter balls? But when halving the ingredients, I somehow added the FULL amount of powdered sugar, so suddenly I found myself committed to the full recipe! Spouse did not mind one bit that I made that little mistake!)

 I rolled them out and put them in the freezer for an hour as Nancy suggests in her recipe.

One of the reasons these peanut butter balls are so good is because of the coating. You can't go wrong with Hershey's chocolate!

As you can see, my dipping skills leave a little to be desired. But they still taste awesome! Needless to say, this recipe will now be a favorite for years to come!

 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls 
Nancy McGrew 

2 cups creamy peanut butter

1 pound powdered sugar
3 cups Rice Krispies
½ cup butter, softened
1 pound Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar
12 ounce bag of Hershey Milk Chocolate Chips

Mix first 4 ingredients together and roll into small balls, ¾” inch. Freeze for 1 hour or so. Melt together chocolate bar and chips in double boiler. Use two forks to dip balls into the chocolate. Let them sit overnight on waxed paper. (In the winter, we set the pans in the garage. It’s about 40 degrees and they set up well.)

Makes approximately 6 dozen.