…right NOW! I’ve been working so much I hadn’t had time to make them until today, so hubby and I in the kitchen trying to make buckeyes for the first time. I already had to make a trip out on Christmas night to see if I could find some wax paper, so I didn’t have to bug my MIL. Would you believe that Walgreen’s is open and has wax paper? They were busy, too!
Unfortunately, I didn’t think of getting paraffin, so the chocolate was looking a bit on the thick side and we were using way more than I had bought, so after doing about a dozen, we thought maybe sticking it in the microwave would help. It doesn’t if you burn the chocolate and it ends up being a hard, bumpy blob of chocolate in no shape for dipping. So, what do you do with a hard, bumpy blob of chocolate? Well, I’ll tell you.
Mix leftover peanut butter with leftover confectioner’s sugar and set aside. Scoop hard, bumpy blob of semi-sweet chips onto wax paper, spread out as flat as possible. Spread peanut butter mixture over chocolate and roll into a log. Place in freezer overnight and contemplate what a horrible cook you are.
Not only have I made the nuts, I’ve made the tree. :o
The rest of the naked peanut butter balls are tucked away in the freezer waiting to take a dip. We’ll have to finish tomorrow after I’ve bought fresh chocolate *and *some paraffin.
I’ve somehow made it almost 25 years without ever having heard of or seen one of these, but their recent popularity on here has piqued my interest. I think I’m going to whip some up tomorrow using cashews, some Skippy, and the gourmet 90% cacao dark chocolate I got for Christmas. I’ll let y’all know how that experiment turns out.
mmm I have eaten way too many of these things today.
Microwaved semi- sweet or milk chocolate chips are the only way to go. Of course I always “let” the kids do the dipping, because I want them to share in the experience.
Ok, so yeah I don’t tell THEM the dipping sucks. They somehow haven’t noticed
I’d never even heard of buckeyes until a couple weeks ago. Then I saw some in a chocolate shop, but since it was here in Ann Arbor, the word “buckeyes” was crossed out with “wolverines” written in underneath.
I have never made them, and since my son is allergic to peanuts, I don’t think I will make them any time soon.
But I do love them and I did notice that they were on the cookie platters at both mine and my husbands family Christmas parties. I ate one at my sisters house. She did the chunky style with graham crackers mixed in the peanut butter.
BTW, they usually just call them peanut butter balls around here, but we have also heard them called buckeyes.
It’s a candy made to look like . . . are you ready for this? A buckeye.
A buckeye is the nut from the buckeye tree. They are a dark chocolat color with lighter ends. They are also supposed to be poison.
Buckeye is also the nic-name for the Ohio State University teams. Michigan ( the Wolverines) and Ohio are neighbors and big time rivals in sports. Thus the little jest in Kyla’s post.
Yep. Check in the baking aisle. The stuff we bought was called Gulf Wax. It worked very well and the chocolate didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects from the dilution. And the chocolate covered mashed potato coconut bon-bons were a hit. You use the stuff for buckeyes, eh? I think I found another snack to make for New Year’s Eve.
wait, those sound great. Where did you get the recipe specifically, I would like to try my hand at them, maybe change the recipe around for some variety if that is not considered sacrilege.
I made them (with the graham cracker crumbs, mmmm) and used just semisweet chocolate and it tasted OK but next time I’m going to try the 1/2 semisweet, 1/2 milk chocolate & paraffin coating. The semisweet didn’t taste exactly right. I also didn’t leave the top uncovered for the buckeye look.
They are ridiculously good and get better as they age as the powdered sugar flavor mellows.
That’s enough from the buckeye gallery, thanks. We had a 17-page Pit thread about this last week, and if anybody has some lingering emotions that weren’t worked out there, they can start another one. It’s not appropriate in MPSIMS.
Brown Eyed Girl, if you put just a leeeetle shortening in with your melted chocolate it will thin it down again so you’ll be able to dip. Learned this from my mother, the world’s authority on homemade candy.
Mom and I made these last weekend. I took some to work and the first guy who had one said, “This looks like some kind of nut.” I had a real buckeye at hand to show him, but as a football fan he was already aware of what a buckeye looks like.
Taste-wise, I still think you might as well just buy a Reese’s.