Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
Updated: Jun 16, 2020
These holiday treats were a Christmas tradition with me and my mom. Even now that I live halfway across the country, and am Jewish, I still try to make these once each year and they’re always a big hit! They’re a great gift for teachers, co-workers and friends. I usually double this recipe...sometimes even quadruple!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
Ingredients
2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. butter (room temperature)
1 lb. powdered sugar
3 c. Rice Crispie cereal
3/4 stick paraffin
14 oz. chocolate
Directions
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Combine peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, and Rice Crispies in a large bowl. Squish the ingredients together with your hands until texture is consistent and you can form it into balls--approx. 1 tbsp. each--by rolling between your hands. If the balls crumble and won’t hold together, add a bit more peanut butter and squish to incorporate. If the balls are super “wet” and just stick to your hands, add a bit more powdered sugar and squish to incorporate.
Once the consistency is correct, form the mixture into balls approx. 1 tbsp. each by rolling between your hands. Set balls on the parchment-lined cookie sheets and put in fridge to chill, 30 minutes minimum (overnight is preferable.)
While balls are chilling, melt paraffin in a double boiler over low-medium heat. Once parafin is melted, add half of the chocolate and stir to combine. Once the consistency is smooth, add the rest of your chocolate and stir to combine. Chocolate should be warm-hot, but NOT boiling. When mixture is smooth and there are no lumps of chocolate at the bottom, you are ready to coat the peanut butter balls.
Using a chocolate dipping tool (I use the spiral one from this set), dunk each ball into the chocolate until completely coated. Transfer ball back to the parchment-lined cookie sheets to harden, and repeat the process for all remaining balls.
Chill the balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour before transferring them to a storage container. Balls may be kept in the refrigerator or freezer until you’re ready to serve or gift.
Notes
The type of chocolate you use to coat the peanut butter balls is up to you. I use a combination of bittersweet and semi-sweet from Ghiradelli, but you can also use milk chocolate or chocolate melting chips (such as the ones from Wilton’s.) If you don’t want to squish the ingredients together with your hands, you can put all of the ingredients in the bowl of your stand mixer and let it do the heavy mixing work for you. You can find paraffin in the grocery store with the canning supplies. Paraffin usually comes in a box, and may just be called “canning wax.” The wax inside will be divided into 4 sticks or slabs; you want to use 3/4 of a single stick or slab for this recipe. If you don’t have a chocolate dipping tool, you can use a cake tester to pierce the balls and dip them in the chocolate. If you do this, you’ll want to drizzle some chocolate over the balls at the end to cover up the hole this creates. I don’t prefer the cake tester method, as it can cause the balls to fall apart when pierced. For a vegan version, substitute margarine or coconut butter and use chocolate with no dairy content.