Copycat Reese’s Chocolate Coated Peanut Butter Balls

There are some goodies/snacks from my childhood that I periodically crave and since I’ve had a variation of Reese’s type candy for many years in a bar form, I thought I’d really prefer it in a ball shape. Why, you may ask? Cuz really it’s candy and this way you feel more virtuous only having one small ball’s worth rather than a square or diamond. Also, this way the whole ball is coated in chocolate and hey, that’s what it’s all about.

While I really like milk chocolate, I find that in part it’s because my taste buds sometimes find it a bit cloying, and sometimes I just find the contrast of semi-sweet or dark chocolate with a sweet interior to be a better version, so I leave that choice up to you but I wound up going with semi-sweet chocolate here and it was sublime. So on to the prep!

Now I like to do the inside of the candy balls in the food processor, since I crush the graham cracker in there anyway, so I find it’s really quick and simple to do the filling all in one go after the crumbs are ready. (While you can do this by hand, it’s rather heavy weather and hard to mix smooth but it can be done if you are persistent.) I much prefer the taste of graham crackers in this but if you are graham cracker-less, you can use a good cookie/biscuit instead. I find the Biscoff/Lotus type biscuit works quite well, for example.

So here’s the crushed graham crackers which I both weighed and measured to be sure of quantity. As you can see it’s very finely crushed, that’s what you want for a smooth consistency. Good. Back into the food processor and add the butter/marg and powdered sugar. Pulse till crumbly like so:

Then add your peanut butter and vanilla. This is also something I leave to you. It is excellent with smooth peanut butter for a smooth bite but for those of us who like a bit of nutty crunchiness, you can go for the crunchy version if you prefer. It simply changes the final texture. Here I went with smooth. Pulse, pulse pulse till a smooth texture forms.

If like me you feel you must taste test this to be sure it’s proportionately correct, then of course you must! Yummm. K, we know it’s good, time to get the pans and chocolate ready. Simply take one or two baking pans/sheets and line with parchment paper. This is where the balls that are prepared will rest in the freezer and then you will place the coated balls on this.

I used an Oxo small cookie scooper and it went 1,2,3 but if you don’t have one, just use two teaspoons and drop onto parchment. You can roll into balls but I find when they are nearly frozen it’s less messy to fix the ball shape then.

and how it looks pre chocolate coating:

Altogether I got approximately 50 balls of filling out of the dough. Now you don’t have to freeze them but I really advise it. Once they are mostly frozen (30 minutes at least) they are SO much easier to dip and work with. So I really recommend you do so.

Now I will say this again, chocolate coating doesn’t need to be difficult. Just pop your chocolate chips/disks/or chopped chocolate if that’s all you’ve got into a microwaveable bowl with the bit of oil. Do not forget the oil, it’s the difference between your chocolate hardening or seizing (or clumping too soon) and not. So put the oil in there and zap in micro, 30 secs, stir, zap again 30 secs, stir just till smooth and no bits are left of the chocolate. Can take up to 2 minutes, shouldn’t really take more (unless your microwave has issues, but keep an eye, don’t overdue it so you scorch the chocolate G-d forbid). Now it’s smooth and glossy and ready for dipping. You gotta work quickly here so the chocolate stays dippable. So I cheated a bit and after doing one or two at a time and realizing the chocolate was getting less dippable, I put in about 5 at a time and using a fork, flipped them over to coat on both sides.

It worked beautifully and went much faster.

And yeah, they aren’t perfect but once they harden, just break off the bits around the edges. And if you lick your fingers I won’t tell a soul. Again, these can harden at room temp or fridge or freezer.

So now that they’re ready, you are bound to ask, how do you prevent yourself from eating the whole lot within a day or two? Simple! Freeze them. Of course, taste test them right away to make sure they are up to your high standards, but after that, I confess, more than a month later there are still a few hidden in the downstairs freezer for a snack attack. I hope my son Netanel doesn’t read this, or they are gone! By the way, they freeze excellently well in a good snap locking freezer container for at least two months. Delectable but you don’t have to sin all at one go. 🙂 .

Copycat Reese’s Chocolate Coated Peanut Butter Balls

1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter (one jar 16 ounces/480 grams)
½ cup (113 grams) butter/margarine, softened
1 cup (100 grams) crushed fine, graham cracker crumbs (about 8 full crackers, both sides), or in a pinch, cookie/biscuit crumbs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups (345 grams) confectioners’/icing /powdered sugar, sifted (first measure, then sift)
1 1/2 cups (255 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon oil

Directions:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
In a food processor (or by hand in a medium bowl), mix confectioners’ sugar, butter/marg, graham cracker crumbs and pulse till crumbly. Then add peanut butter and vanilla and pulse just till you form a smooth stiff dough. Shape into balls using a small oxo scoop or use 2 teaspoons of filling per ball. Place on parchment paper on baking pan, and freeze for 1/2 an hour.

Melt oil and chocolate together in bowl in microwave 30 seconds and stir and if not melted again 30 seconds and stir, repeat just till chocolate is melted without bits in it and it’s smooth and glossy. Take balls out of freezer. Take about 4-5 balls and dip into melted chocolate, swirling on both sides to cover and use a fork to remove balls, allowing chocolate to drip back into bowl and put on parchment paper to harden. Repeat with remaining balls. You can let harden at room temp but best to refrigerate for 30 minutes till chocolate hardens and sets. Freezes very well once chocolate is set.