Crafty in the Kitchen

This is a little crafty in the kitchen post! As a precursor to another crafty afternoon. Tomorrow a couple friends and I are going to a painting and wine night. I've been to a few of them before and always have a fantastic time. So, I'm really excited. We're all bringing something for the painting event. One of my friends is bringing the bottle of wine and one is bringing cheese and crackers. I figured we needed something sweet...(go figure the diabetic would have this thought). It's been awhile since I've baked or made goodies. Granted I don't delve into these treats due to being diabetic but I really enjoy making them.

So on to the recipe! I made Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls.


This was super easy! (And no actual baking involved)

The ingredients:

18 ounce jar of creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon butter, softened
1-3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
12 ounce bag of chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate chips)
1/2 teaspoon Crisco

The first step is to make the peanut butter mix that will make the actual balls. Scoop out the entire 18 ounce jar of peanut butter into a microwave safe bowl. Put in the butter and stir. Now, to be honest I didn't actually measure the butter, so that's a rough estimate. After you stir in the butter you want to microwave the mix for 30 seconds to a minute. Enough so that the butter is completely melted and when you stir it again it's a little creamier than it was before. Not TOO soupy, just a little creamier. Stir in vanilla. Next stir in the powdered sugar. I started with one cup and then stirred it in completely. I then started added about a 1/4 of a cup at a time and continued stirring it in until it got pretty thick. Once it got to the point where it was just balling up when I stirred I added about another 1/4 of a cup and mixed it with my hands. You'll want to add sugar until it becomes almost a play dough like consistency. Break a small piece off, and roll it into a small ball. Put it on a wax paper lined pan. If it doesn't lose it's shape after about a minute you're good to go.

Next you keep balling the peanut butter dough up into small balls. You can pick the size. Just make them consistent. After you've balled up all the dough put the balls in the fridge for at least an hour. Then stick them in the freezer for about 1/2 an hour right before you get ready to dip them in chocolate. You can probably put them straight into the freezer, but I had some other things I needed to finish before I coated them and I didn't want them to get too frozen.

To prepare the chocolate you can either microwave it or use a double broiler. If you have pots and a glass bowl you can make your own double broiler. Just fill your pan up with water. But use your bowl as a measuring guide. You want your glass bowl to be able to rest on top of the pan, without the water touching the bowl at all. Let the water boil, then turn the stove top off but leave the pan there. Put your glass bowl on top of your pan, and pour in your bag of chocolate chips and your lard. The lard helps keep the chocolate pretty! Don't stop stirring the chocolate until everything is melted. Once all the chocolate has melted remove the bowl.

Take the peanut butter balls out of the freezer and (this is the time consuming part) dip them one at a time into the chocolate. You can decide how covered you want them. Some of the balls I completely covered in chocolate, some of them I only have covered. I used toothpicks to dip the balls in and bring them out of the chocolate.




Then just put everything back in the fridge again! Allow the chocolate to harden and then enjoy!