You don’t have to be from Ohio to love Peanut Butter Buckeyes. These homemade buckeye candies have a soft peanut butter filling surrounded by rich chocolate. They’re simple to prepare and always a crowd-pleaser!
After you make these peanut butter balls, try my Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge or peanut butter brownies next!
The Best Buckeye Candy Recipe
If you’re not from Ohio or the Midwest, you’ve been missing out on Buckeyes! Thanks to my short life in Ohio, we found the BEST recipe. The ONLY way you should be making these candies.
They’re similar to a Reese’s peanut butter cup. A soft peanut butter mixture is rolled into balls then covered in melted chocolate.
- This peanut butter ball recipe only takes a few ingredients and no special equipment!
- The candies are soft and tender in the middle with a crunch of chocolate coating.
Everyone raves over this recipe for peanut butter balls when I bring them to a party or potluck! They keep well for a couple of weeks so Buckeyes make great gifts too.
You don’t need any excuse to whip up a batch of these chocolate covered peanut butter balls. Buckeyes are ALWAYS a good idea.
If you love today’s candy, be sure to try my chocolate peanut butter pie recipe next! So easy, and no bake too. Add a delicious buckeye to my easy buckeye brownie cookies!
Ingredients for Buckeyes
- Creamy peanut butter. You need regular shelf stable peanut butter for this Buckeye recipe. Do not use natural style peanut butters.
- Powdered sugar. the superfine texture of powdered sugar keeps these buckeyes soft and not grainy. Sometimes people call it confectioners sugar.
- Melted Butter. I use unsalted in my recipes, unless specified differently (like in our rice krispie treats).
- Vanilla Extract– choose pure vanilla extract or use my homemade vanilla extract in baking.
- Chocolate melting wafers. These are the trick to candies with a perfectly smooth chocolate coating. I use the Ghirardelli brand. You can also use melting wafers called “chocolate bark” or “candyquik”!
Aimee’s Secret
What you don’t see in my recipe? Graham cracker crumbs. I’m not sure why some recipes use them, but for the most authentic buckeye, you’ll love my simple version.
How to Make Peanut Butter Balls
- Make peanut butter filling: Blend together the peanut butter ball ingredients to combine.
- Roll into balls. Roll the filling into evenly sized balls with your hands. Place on a baking sheet. Chill for about 1 hour in the refrigerator.
- Dip in chocolate coating: Melt the chocolate wafers according to package directions. Use a toothpick to dip the buckeye balls into melted chocolate.
- Allow to set. Leave the top of the peanut butter ball exposed for a classic Buckeye appearance! Pinch the toothpick marks on the peanut butter balls closed and smooth with your finger.
Tips and Tricks
- Line the pan with parchment paper. This keeps the peanut butter balls from sticking and helps catch the mess of dripping chocolate.
- Let an excess chocolate drip off the peanut butter balls over the bowl before placing them on the cookie sheet to set.
- No need to refrigerate the Buckeyes after dipping them in chocolate. The chocolate will harden quickly at room temperature.
- If you prefer the look of Buckeyes with the toothpick hole in the center, you can skip the step of pinching the holes closed.
- For an even easier dessert, make buckeye bars instead! No rolling and dipping.
Recipe FAQs
Once the chocolate has hardened, place the peanut butter balls in a Ziploc freezer bag or airtight container. Make sure they are in a single layer. Freeze for up to 3 months.
Store these in an airtight container at room temperature. They’ll keep well for about 1 week. While they don’t need chilling, they do taste good cold as well! So feel free to pop them in the fridge if you prefer.
You can use either one! Milk Chocolate is more common but dark chocolate tastes great with the peanut butter center too.
I don’t recommend using melted chocolate chips for the coating. They aren’t designed for melting so they create a harder coating when the chocolate sets.
Easy Homemade Candy Recipes
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Peanut Butter Buckeyes Recipe
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter melted
- 3 ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 ½ cup creamy peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 12 ounce chocolate candy coating Ghirardelli melting wafers, chocolate
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, blend melted butter, powdered sugar, peanut butter and vanilla extract until fully combined.
- Scoop balls and roll them into your hands, making about a 1-1/2 inch sized ball. Place on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and repeat until all filling is used.
- Refrigerate for about one hour.
- Melt chocolate according to package directions. Using a toothpick, dip bottoms into melted chocolate (leaving some of the peanut butter tops exposed). Place on parchment paper and allow to set.
- If desired, when chocolate has set, pinch the toothpick marks closed and pat until smooth. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks. ENJOY.
Notes
- Line the pan with parchment paper. This keeps the peanut butter balls from sticking and helps catch the mess of dripping chocolate.
- Let an excess chocolate drip off the peanut butter balls over the bowl before placing them on the cookie sheet to set.
- No need to refrigerate the Buckeyes after dipping them in chocolate. The chocolate will harden quickly at room temperature.
- If you prefer the look of Buckeyes with the toothpick hole in the center, you can skip the step of pinching the holes closed. It’s up to you!
- Make buckeye bars instead! No rolling and dipping.
Video
Nutrition
Peanut Butter Balls (Ohio Buckeyes) are a holiday treat that is easy to make. Even the kids can help you create this classic no bake dessert that even the kids can help you create!
YUM! I had forgotten all about these babies! Originally made them in a Home Ec. class in West Virginia. That recipe had Rice Krispies stirred into the peanut butter balls, then dipped in chocolate. They were soooo good! Can’t wait to try your recipe and THANKS for bringing back an old (I’m not telling HOW old) forgotten recipe Ü
Hah, how adorable they look! Can’t wait to taste them, looks delicious!
This is a favorite treat at our house! We have started adding our own twist to it – I make the PB balls and put them between 2 mini pretzels and then dip half in the chocolate. So good! We especially make these for Sunday football in the fall but now that there in my head we might just have a batch this weekend 🙂 thanks!
Hi Aimee,
I’ll be interested to hear what others say! I’m in Illinois and this has been a holiday staple since I can remember. I think if the hole offends you, do buckeyes your way! Laziness will always prevail on mine, lol. I’ve actually been seeing a twist on these the last few years where people are adding Rice Krispies into the mix. Hope that doesn’t cause an Illinois-Ohio rift from the purists out there 🙂
In Ohio, many people leave the hole, not knowing how to cover it up without touching the buckeyes with their fingers and making a mess of it. I make them with a candy dipper prong thingie and avoid the holes. For those dipping the entire thing in chocolate, that is delicious, but will no longer look be a buckeye. The buckeye is Ohio’s state tree – the candies aren’t submerged in chocolate so they look like the buckeye nuts. Any variation is delicious, but unless it looks like a buckeye nut, it isn’t a buckeye.
Many melting wafers contain some form of wax. The purpose is to make a shiny finish as many people don’t know how to temper pure chocolate. Check if your melting wafers have wax in ’em or not. If you’re using pure chocolate – not Nestle chips – you will want to temper the chocolate for the snap and shine.
Where is the recipe for the Buckeyes?
Has anyone tried to make these by dipping in just semi-sweet chocolate without the wax? Does that work?
My recipe uses melting wafers or chocolate bark 🙂
How long would these last before you’d have to eat them? Trying to be prepared and make a load for friends. Of course I’ll have to hid them from myself!
I’ve made them a week in advance!
Thank you! I can’t wait to try them ❤️❤️
Will these work without any ‘wax’ and just using melted semi sweet chocolate chips?! I sure hope so.. because this recipe is going to a cookie swap tomorrow and I had no idea about the wax hahaa!
I never heard of melting the butter gonna try it. Thanks
Your recipe has been featured here > https://sweetmeetsbakeshop.com/2016/04/14/buckeye-crunch-bars-buckeye-history/
Happy Thursday and keep on desserting!
Loved this recipe! So did my family! Although I did add one less cup of powdered sugar. Otherwise it was WAY too sweet. Even so, I love it! It was really easy to make.
Less sugar? What? Kidding! Glad you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
You all that say it is laziness by leaving the toothpick hole there are all idiots!! And have NEVER lived with CHRONIC PAIN and still made these every year. You that say that are PATHETIC!!!
Yum! My friend in Ohio always sends me a box of these for my birthday, they don’t last long. Now I’m excited to make them year round. Go Bucks!
I grew up eating buckeyes in Ohio, and I was really disappointed with this rendition. I had never tried Candiquik coating before, so it didn’t strike me as a bad idea when I first saw the recipe. But now I know. Candiquik is a poor substitute for real chocolate. Dip the PB balls in melted semisweet chocolate, and you’ll taste the difference. No offense, but these tasted like peanut butter flavored sugar dipped in chocolate flavored sugar. Instead of like a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup in ball form, as it should taste.
You laugh at the “laziness” of the people who make the recipe however you really thought the recipe called for paraffin wax?! It calls for melted chocolate. Hard shell candy coating is blasphemy. Oh- and learn to spell ‘anyway’ – there is NO ‘s’ on the end of ANYWAY!!!!!
Buckeyes are supposed to look like exactly that, buckeyes- so they shouldn’t be covered entirely in chocolate. While the holes aren’t “supposed” to be there, I think its rude to assume its due to laziness! The thing is, by the time you roll them all, the peanut butter is soft and its hard to cover the holes at that time. Then, after freezing, the ball is often too hard to cover the holes. Everyone that makes them should know this! Obviously they’re prettier with the toothpick holes removed and maybe some people are lazy but I don’t assume everyone that makes these wonderful balls is lazy! Also, aren’t you just grateful your SIL even shared the recipe?!!!
I was just kidding about the laziness, which is why I added the “haha” to my comment. I agree they are a bit of work (or maybe I should say time consuming). And yes, of course I’m grateful the recipe was shared with me 🙂
My peanut butter mixture is just slightly different. I would never, ever dream of leaving the toothpick holes !!! I, too, freeze the pb balls after rolling…just long enough to harden, maybe 20 min or so. My chocolate mixture is 12oz Hershey bars with 1/2 bar of gulf wax paraffin. I have a nifty Wilton melting pot that keeps the chocolate mixture at the perfect temperature. Santa always gets Buckeyes at our house on Christmas
Eve !!!
Haha, glad you cover the toothpick holes too!!
My mother also used wax in her buckeye recipe, she also made them every year. A hit at family Christmas parties.
It reminds me of reading my grandma’s old recipes that call for “oleo” 🙂
Coming from someone that lived their first 25 years in Ohio, I think the toothpick mark is laziness 🙂 My grandma left it, but my mom tries to cover hers up, and so do I. Dipping the chocolate so the edge comes right to the toothpick is an easy way to cover it up, the hole just fills with chocolate! Or I make buckeye ‘pops’, that way you just leave the stick on!
Probably one of my favorite things ever 🙂
I grew up in Michigan, right near the Ohio border. Buckeyes have been a holiday tradition for as long as I can remember. So imagine my surprise when other states I’ve lived in, they were unknown…but not for long! lol.
The recipe that I’ve always used calls for graham cracker crumbs in the peanut butter as well.