Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
I already told you that my family has the best tradition of making homemade Christmas candies! And I already shared the recipe for 2 of my 3 favorite homemade candies: Nuts & Bolts Candy Clusters and Peppermint Christmas Candies. And today I am sharing the most coveted of all of the recipes… Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls.
When I started posting these candy recipes, I had comments flooding in all over Facebook from friends and family asking begging me to share the recipe for our Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls. Fear not, dear ones! I am not mean {except that I saved this one for last… mwah ha ha!}! I have the famous Chocolate Peanut Butter Ball recipe for all of you!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls
By Published: December 7, 2012
- Yield: 75-100 pieces
I already told you that my family has the best tradition of making homemade Christmas candies! And I already shared the recipe for …
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 1/2 tbsp butter softened
- 10 cups powdered sugar divided; {equivalent to 1.25 2lb bags}
- 16 ounce jar natural peanut butter
- 2 bags chocolate chips
- 1/8 slab household paraffin wax {I use Gulf Wax found in the canning section}
Instructions
- In a mixer, cream together cream cheese and butter until smooth.
- Add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time to creamed mixture, up to 8 cups, and combine completely. Transfer fondant ball into a deep mixing bowl.
- With gloved hands, knead natural peanut butter into the fondant ball.
- If needed, knead 1/2 cup of powdered sugar at a time into fondant ball until it is smooth, holds its shape, but does not crumble or stick to the bowl. You may not need the full 2 extra cups to reach this consistency.
- Roll peanut butter fondant into balls and place on a lined baking sheet. Place full tray into freezer for 1 hour.
- In a double boiler, melt chocolate chips and wax until smooth.
- Remove baking sheet from freezer and dip balls into chocolate, one at a time, placing chocolate coated balls back on the baking sheet. If balls begin to soften from the heat of the chocolate, place them back into the freezer to harden again.
- When all the candies have been coated, place baking sheet back into the freezer for 30 minutes to allow the chocolate to harden.
- Store candies in a container in the refrigerator until ready to be served.
See the pictures below to help you figure out what I mean for some of the steps. Finding the right consistency of the fondant is key to this recipe!
Like the Peppermint Christmas Candies, this recipe is a little labor intensive but completely worth it! A few notes for you guys:
- As I said in the instructions, you may or may not use all 10 cups of the powdered sugar. You will definitely use at least 8 cups {1 bag}. This is a rough estimate. The peanut butter candies have a higher chance of being a little crumbly. But even if they are crumbly, you can still make them! It just takes a little extra effort to roll them. I’ve made these candies for 15+ years and each year the amount of powdered sugar used is different.
- If you don’t have a double boiler you can do what I do! Bring about 1-inch of water to a low simmer and place a non-meltable bowl on top of it. It works just as well as an acutal double boiler!
- Don’t be afraid of the household paraffin wax used in the chocolate. I’ve done my research and many commercial chocolates as well as professional chefs use this wax in their chocolate coated candies. It helps to harden the chocolate. No worries! It is completely edible!
These peanut butter candies are TO. DIE. FOR. I have had many other peanut butter balls, but none compare to these. I think the real secret ingredient is the natural peanut butter.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls were always the first candy asked for and the first candy gone. In fact, we started making a double batch of peanut butter balls just to cover the demand for them!
I love all of these candies so much! And it wouldn’t be Christmas without them. Though this Christmas season, I am trying to save myself by giving a lot of them away to family and friends. 
What is your favorite Christmas candy? Or do you prefer cookies?
