BUCKEYES

These homemade candies are a tradition for many families around the holidays. Essentially peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate, buckeyes freeze easily if you want to keep a stash for when company drops by.

Yield: Makes 6 dozen.

BUCKEYES

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup salted butter, melted
  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 4 3/4 cups sifted icing sugar
  • 8 squares semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1 1/2 tsp shortening

Directions

  1. Combine butter, peanut butter and vanilla in a bowl until smooth. Beat in 4 1/2 cups icing sugar. Mixture should be firm and crumbly in appearance. If not, beat in remaining 1/4 cup icing sugar. Shape mixture into 1 inch balls. Place balls on a wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Cover and chill until firm, at least 1 hour.
  2. Melt chocolate and shortening in a small heavy saucepan over low heat. Dip bottom half of each ball into chocolate mixture and place, chocolate side down, on a wax paper-lined cookie sheet. Cover and chill until firm. Buckeyes may be frozen.
Nutritional analysis per cookie:

78 calories, 4.3 g fat, 0.9 g protein, 9.7 carbohydrate, 0.3 g fibre, 31 mg sodium