Buckeyes

I know that some people are not going to want me to say this but.... it's almost fall. Granted officially summer doesn't end until late September, but for me summer ends when school begins. I know fall is coming when I start to have back to school nightmares. Forgotten tests, lost assignments, forgotten clothes... these are the essence of my dreams from the beginning of August until September starts. It doesn't matter if I'm going back to school or not, I still have the nightmares. But once the dreams settle down and fall really begins it's all about leaves and oranges and golds. One of our major goals for fall is to try and make it out to Ohio. I've only ever driven through but D assures me that I will love it. One distinctly Ohioan candy that I know I like is the buckeye.

If you haven't had a buckeye you're missing out. A ball of sweet peanut butter surrounded by chocolate.... mmmmmmmm. They're easy to make (although pretty time consuming) and they look spectacular. The buckeye resembles the nut from the buckeye tree (Aesculus glabra) which is the state tree of Ohio. These are actually buckeyes that I picked up myself from a buckeye tree. Not an official Ohio buckeye tree, but a buckeye tree nonetheless.

According to The Food Timeline, buckeyes as we know them are from the 20th century, no earlier. But no matter how recent of a creation buckeyes are they are addictively good.

In all honesty, they're kind of sickeningly sweet. So if you aren't a fan of sugar comas I would reduce the amount of powdered sugar in the recipe. As much as I love sugar, the next time I make these I will not be using as much. You might end up with a few less buckeyes, but they'll be better.

Also the chocolate is very hard to dip with. It didn't matter how long I melted it, it was hard and the first few buckeyes are a little fugly, but it does get easier the more you do. One last thing, I used natural peanut butter in these. The kind that's oily and you have to stir and it worked just fine. So feel free to use whatever kind of peanut butter you'd like.

Buckeyes
adapted from allrecipes.com
Makes 30-50 buckeyes depending on the size you make them
1 1/2 c. peanut butter (for a less sweet more peanut butter taste add 2 c.)
1 c. (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
6 c. powdered sugar (if you would like a little less sweetness use 4 c. of powdered sugar)
4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a big bowl mix together the peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar. It's easiest to do this with your hands other wise it will go everywhere. The mixture should be pretty crumbly and dry, but make sure that you have thoroughly mixed all the butters in. Roll dough into uniform one inch balls. If your mixture is not dry and crumbly, but instead really wet and sticky, then put the bowl in the freezer for awhile before you start to form the dough into balls. Place the balls onto a wax paper covered cookie sheet. Then put in the freezer for 30 minutes to harden.

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave on thirty second intervals stirring after each until smooth and melted. (You can also use a double boiler or put the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of water on the stove to melt it). Using the toothpick dip the frozen peanut butter balls into the chocolate mixture and coat them, making sure to leave a little of the peanut butter uncovered at the top (like an eye). The easiest way I found to dip the balls was to stick it in the chocolate and then swirl it around to cover it as much as you wish. Place the dipped buckeye back onto the wax paper and put in fridge to harden. Store in the refrigerator.