I've made these for years with slightly different proportions: 2 cups crunchy peanut butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 2 cups rice krispies and 1 1/2 cups softened margarine. I, too, melt the choc. chips in the microwave with shortening. I went to a Party City and bought a plastic dipping spoon in the candy-making department....and it makes dipping the balls a MUCH easier process! Even when I double the recipe, every morsel goes.....as I place them on pretty plates or in pretty candy dishes and give them as Christmas gifts to very special friends!
I thought these were excellent! I added about 1/4 cup more peanut butter and it was very easy to form balls by pressing the mixture together. Also- Instead of the messy process of dipping the balls, I used mini-muffin papers and covered the bottoms with melted chocolate and then added the peanut butter balls and poured chocolate over the top. Easy!
Oh my does this bring back memories! My Grandma Helen used to make these every Christmas and we all looked forward to them. I didn't have her recipe and I was so happy to find this on AR. I made these with my niece and we had a ball - no pun intended! I did made a couple of changes to made it hold together better. I used a whole jar of peanut butter (it's a little over 2 cups anyway), kept the butter the same, and reduced the sugar by 1 cup. I melted the peanut butter and butter in the microwave and then mixed everything. I put the peanut butter balls on cookie sheets lined with wax paper and let them chill for a few hours. I then dipped them in chocolate and red and green sprinkles for Xmas. Take one bite of these crunchy, peanuty, chocolatey little treats and you'll want to make these every year too!
Awesome! This is an excellant recipe! We didn't have any rice krispies so we took some kix and crunched them up and used those and they turned out great! Also we had lots of trouble with the chocolate melting. It would get really grainy. Our solution was to put a little bit of chocolate in at a time over very low heat. It worked perfectly! Don't forget to stick toothpicks in the peanutbutter balls before you freeze them. Makes them much easier to dip;)
These are truly wonderful Christmas treats. I make them every year and they disappear in a hurry. Some advice...if you have an old fork you are willing to sacrifice, bend it so that is L shaped. Pour your melted chocolate into a narrow container and dip your pb balls this way. Keep a hot water bath handy if the chocolate starts to thicken. Also, if you tire of dipping in chocolate, another option is to roll in finely chopped pecans or walnuts, or a mixture of cocoa and powdered sugar...or you can just drizzle the chocolate over them in zig zag patern.
Very Good recipe. Guests thought the chocolate was a little rich I think next time I'll try milk chocolate chips. Adding extra peanut butter is a good idea. And I think adding 2 tablespoons of shortening to the chocolate makes it a thinner layer of chocolate.
Great hit for kids and adults. Only used 2 cups sugar and 4-5 cups of rice krispies as I found it too wet to roll properly. I liked the crunchy texture that I remembered.
This was delicious. I have never had peanut butter balls before but they are similar to buckeys with out the cereal. I found that forming the balls was a little difficult because the mixture kept sticking to my hands. I solved that problem by dipping my fingers in some water. I brought some into work and everyone thought they were great.
We used to call these "chestnuts" when I was little because once they're dark chocolate-covered balls with a circle of peanut butter poking out on top. These are really easy to make and they taste delicious. The peanut-batter batter will be a bit dry at first but keep stirring until the icing sugar is fully combined. Definitely use toothpicks to dunk the balls in the chocolate - stick a pick in each ball before they are refrigerated. And you don't need to cover them completely in chocolate - I find that is a bit too rich for most people's taste. Just dip halfway. A scrumptious Christmas treat!
These are WAY too sweet as the recipe is written. I cut the sugar to 2 cups and all I could taste was sugar - I couldn't even taste the peanut butter. I wound up having to melt down another cup of peanut butter and add another few cups of cereal to make them edible. I would never put more than 1 cup of sugar in this.
