Buckeyes, the homemade peanut butter cup!

So this week was pretty busy! There was a Volunteer's Bake sale at the hospital. That's when the volunteers of the hospital ask people to either donate baked goods to sell, or to buy some to help them collect funds for the annual scholarship they offer locally. So I was eager to help, and I did a little of both (baking and buying). I decided to make Pumpkin Cupcakes ( recipe posted last month) and Buckeyes! Buckeyes are an annual Thanksgiving tradition in our family. We are from Ohio ( the buckeye state) and I'm pretty sure that's how they got their name. Now we aren't talking about the nuts here! It's a homemade peanut butter cup essentially. It's as easy as 1,2,3...... No really the recipe is as follows

Buckeyes

Ingredients

1 lb. of butter

2 lbs. of peanut butter

3 lbs. of powdered sugar

1-2 bags of semisweet chocolate chips

paraffin wax ( I use 1/4 of a bar, but litle by little)

Directions

1- Mix butter, peanut butter and powdered sugar by hand until the dough doesn't stick to your hands. Roll into little balls of dough ( size them as you like, I use mini cupcake holders to help determine the size of mine) This part is messy! You can always have someone else add the powdered sugar little by little!

2- In a double boiler melt chips and paraffin wax, mix well. For those like me who don't have one, just use a smaller pan inside of a larger pan with boiling water (only enough to fill the bottom 1/4-1/2 full). Ideally the smaller pan should have two handles so it doesn't splash down into the larger one and ruin your chocolate when you look away for a second..trust me it happens!I have done it with a one handled pan no problem, it just takes some more babysitting.

3- Dip dough balls in melted chocolate and paraffin wax mixture using a skewer, fondue pick, or toothpick (I've used a fork before too, it just bothers me aesthetically because buckeyes have one hole at the top not 4)

4- Place freshly dipped buckeyes on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or foil. When the pan is full place immediately in the refrigerator. 

5- After buckeyes have set ( approx. 20minutes) Place them in mini cupcake holders if you want, or just eat them!

6- Store in the refrigerator in a container for longer shelf life ( I like them cold much better than room temperature)

** One batch yields approx. 100 buckeyes

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The Bake sale went well! I did have a few leftover pumpkin muffins, probably because 4 others made pumpkin bread/muffins/cupcakes?? The Buckeyes, however, were gone in a flash! Try them and you'll see why!

Actual Buckeye Nuts...just for visual comparison!