Christmas is my favorite holiday. All of my friends and family know that. I start listening to Christmas music in early November, but honestly, holiday music is appropriate any time of the year in my honest opinion. I love shopping for the perfect gift for that special someone. The holidays aren’t complete without cookies… And lots of them.
I am normally a pretty healthy eater. I love my veggies and eat healthy wheat bread. But when the holidays come around all of that goes out the window. I eat my weight in desert. One of my family’s favorite holiday traditions is when my mom makes her deserts. During family gatherings, whether it be Christmas or New Year, my mother isn’t allowed in the door without her signature dishes in hand.
This recipe isn’t exactly unique, a lot of people have it, but my mom has an added ingredient that isn’t quite as common. Today, I’m going to show you how to make my mom’s recipe of Peanut Butter Balls. They’re easy and delicious because there isn’t a better combination than chocolate and peanut butter.
2 cups Smooth Peanut Butter
1 stick butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
3 cups Rice Krispies
1 pound of chocolate melted (semi-sweet it what the recipe suggests, but my mom uses milk chocolate)
Mix the peanut butter, butter and powered sugar very well. After those are mixed, pour in the rice krispies. When you’re stirring the entire mixture be careful not to crush the rice krispies. You’ll lose the crunch you have with them!
This is what your batter should look like before it’s ready to be rolled.
Put them in the refrigerator until they are totally chilled. When I say totally chilled I’m talking about letting the batter sit for an hour or so. After they’re chilled roll them into balls and let the chill again for another half hour at least. You need them to be hard so they don’t melt while you’re dipping them.
You don’t need to make huge balls, bite size will work perfectly.
While you’re waiting for the balls to chill start melting your chocolate. You need a double boiler to keep it melted while you’re dipping all of the peanut butter goodness! Don’t forget to add a few chunks of paraffin wax because it keeps it from harden too hard for when you bite into it.
You don’t need a lot of wax to get the job done!
Now, the fun part begins. You get to dip the balls in the melted chocolate. There is a technique I’m going to show you here!
Make sure you let most of the chocolate drip off the ball before you put it in the wax paper.
Make sure to cover the toothpick holes with some chocolate too, we wouldn’t want any of the peanut butter to show.
Use some of your leftover chocolate to fill in the holes!
After they’re dipped put them on wax paper and chill them again! Sorry, but you can’t eat them melted, they’re just too darn messy. Once they’re hardened they’re ready to eat and serve!
After your family and friends try these the holidays will never be the same without them! From all of the ladies on Messing Dairy, we wish you a happy holiday and New Year.
Great idea with the rice crispies. I am totally going to make some of those tomorrow!!! 🙂
A note on the Christmas music… I had that on the radio station in the barn until they switched back to the regular music on that channel, so I thought, “Oh, well, I hear classical is what cows like” so I turned that on. Well, my cow has been dull, listless, and not nearly as fun since then. I am thinking it’s because she misses the Christmas music!! It was getting her in the mood to calve, and now, nothing!!
Yes, try the rice crispies! They’re awesome 🙂 I totally agree about the Christmas music. I’m really bummed that it’s all done for the year!