Buckeyes

One of my friends at work made these a couple weeks ago.  It was the first time I tasted a Buckeye, and it was really, really good!  Kind of like a better version of Reese's Peanut Butter cups (in my opinion anyhow).   Anyhow, there was a potluck this weekend, so I decided to make these for it.  The recipe below is slightly modified from the recipe she gave me, but still worked!

Ingredients

1.5 cups extra chunky peanut butter (her original recipe called for creamy, but I didn't have any at home)

1 stick of butter, room temp

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups powdered sugar (I like things less sweet, but you can add more sugar as you need)

1 tsp vanilla extract

12 oz of dark choc chips (I use Ghiradelli)

Directions

1.  Blend everything except the dark chocolate chips together with a electric beater.  It should be fairly stiff, where if you mold it into a ball, it holds it's shape.

2.  Roll the dough into balls.  I made small ones (~1/2 tbsp of dough per ball).  Freeze these balls for about 15 mins.

3.  In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips.  I don't actually have a double boiler, so I do the following:  Put about 1 inch of water in a small sauce pan.  Put the chocolate in a small bowl that rests on top of the saucepan so that it is not touching the water.  Heat the water to boiling and stir the chocolate till its smooth and melted completely (pourable).

4.  Take the peanut butter balls out of the freezer.  Insert a toothpick in the top and use it to dip the ball in the melted chocolate till only the top of the peanut butter is showing.  Place the chocolate dipped ball on wax paper and carefully pull the toothpick out.

5.  Freeze until about an hour before you are ready to serve it.  I wanted them to look finished, so I used my finger to smooth over the toothpick hole.

Note: These measurements made 80-100 candies.