Chocolate and peanut butter is one of my most favourite combinations! Whose isn’t it? All those people who yell at me in capital letters that they are allergic to peanut butter. I feel for you, I really do as I couldn’t imagine being without my addiction, but finding a substitution is probably something easier for you to do, than me. There is also this amazing thing called Google.
This recipe is a special one to me, as my girlfriend Melissa made it for us during a Christmas Cookie Exchange one year. Unfortunately, a number of years ago, she passed away. I felt so lucky being able to continue on using her Dad’s recipe for this creation. I know she would have loved it, and I appreciate my time that I got to spend with her, albeit too short.
You can make these traditionally by rolling the peanut butter mixture into balls, and dipping them into melted chocolate. But if you’re looking for an adorable Thanksgiving treat, you have to try these. They’re super simple, and the only thing that takes time is the setting of the chocolate. I address this in the video, but I chose to use melting wafers/almond bark as they set faster than regular chocolate.
Peanut Butter Buckeye Ball Turkeys
Ingredients:
- Chocolate baking squares (or chips, or melting wafers)
- Peanut butter melting wafers (or tan colored chocolate)
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 cup peanut butter
- 3 cups icing sugar
- Orange candy coloured sunflower seeds
- Small red heart sprinkles
- Candy eyeballs
- Melt chocolate in 30 second intervals in the microwave at 50% power, or use a double boiler.
- Using a silicone oval mold, fill cavities with 1 tablespoon of melted chocolate. Place in fridge to harden. Repeat with a second coat of chocolate, ensuring that all holes, or gabs are filled in.
- Melt more chocolate into a piping bag, and snip a small piece of the tip with scissors.
- On a baking tray, lined with a piece of parchment paper, pipe out the outline of tail feathers for the turkey. Place into the fridge to harden once one set of feathers per turkey has been completed.
- Once feather outlines are hardened, fill in the tail feather out line with the melted peanut butter chocolate, which is also in a piping bag.
- With the peanut butter chocolate, also pipe small feet for the turkey.
- Place tray into the fridge to harden.
- To make the peanut butter filling, cream butter and peanut butter together in a medium sized bowl, using a large spoon.
- Add the icing sugar and mix until combined. Mixture will look grainy, but if pressed together, balls will be able to be formed.
- Remove hardened chocolate cavities from the fridge and fill each cavity with peanut butter filling.
- Once each cavity is filled, cover peanut butter mixture with melted chocolate, sealing the peanut butter inside. Ensure that there are no gaps of chocolate. Return to fridge to solidify.
- Once chocolate and peanut butter cavities are completely solid, you can remove them from the silicone mold.
- Using melted chocolate, attach eyes, beak and wattle to the turkey’s face. Then the tail feather and feet.
- Serve when desired once the chocolate is set.
- These are best kept in the fridge in a sealed container, for 2-3 days.
Hi Jenn,
I was wondering about how long the set-up process took for the chocolate. I know the set-up time is different depending on the kind of chocolate you use. I’m planning on using chocolate and peanut butter chips. Also, since the hardening of the chocolate likely took some time, did you have to keep re-heating the melted chocolate? Whenever I use melted chocolate, I found that it hardens relatively fast. Thanks! Can’t wait to make these for Thanksgiving. 🙂
I have a love/hate releationship with chocolate for the reasons you stated. I have found that keeping the chocolate in piping bags makes reheating easy, as does squeezing the chocolate away from the tip of the bag before it hardens. I don’t know the exact time the setting took as I am always doing other things, and I just kept checking back on them…my guess would be 10 minutes?? I just reheat in the microwave at 50% power.
Hi Jenn! I just wanted to know how many turkeys come out of the recipe? I know there’s about 4 on the plate but is that it?
Thanks,
Abbigail
No, it made over a dozen of them.
Hi Jenn,
Please show me how to make Olaf sugar cookies.
Thank you,
Izabela
I’ll add it to my list! Thanks.