Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

These Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats are so easy to make and only have 4 ingredients.  They're very rich and peanut buttery.  They're almost like candy- I'll bet they would be awesome cut into small squares (or rectangles!) and dipped in chocolate to make candy bars.  I found the recipe on Food.com. 

 

Quick Note: My finished "sheet" of treats was about 9 by 9 inches, but I found it easier to use a 9 by 13 pan and just not spread the mixture over the entire thing.  My parchment paper is about 15 inches wide and it worked well to just line the pan with a torn of sheet the entire width.  If you do want to use a 9 by 9 pan, cut a sheet of parchment paper about 10 or 11 inches wide.  Alternatively, the mixture is thick enough that you could just put a large piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet, pour on the mixture, and press it into a square as thick as you want with a spatula.

 

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

 

1 C sugar

1 C corn syrup

1 1/2 C peanut butter

5 C Rice Krispies

 

Pour Rice Krispies into a large bowl and line a 9 by 9 inch pan with a piece of parchment paper large enough to hang over the sides by a 5 inches.  Set aside.

 

Place sugar, corn syrup, and peanut butter in a medium sauce pan and heat over medium until it comes to a slight boil.  Stir constantly and let simmer for a couple of minutes.  The mixture will be very thick and can burn easily.  It may not look like much of a simmer because it's so thick and you're stirring the whole time, but just stick with it.

 

Remove pan from heat and immediately pour over Rice Krispies.  Stir until cereal is completely coated.  Pour mixture into prepared baking dish and spread with a spatula.  Press flat your hand over the folded edges of parchment paper.

 

Let set an hour or so until cool, then cut into squares and serve.

 

Yield: Completely depends on how large you cut them.  I got about 16 squares.

Oreo Truffles

This recipe is from Southern Plate and I first made it last year. They're super easy to make and quite tasty, my husband in particular likes them. You wouldn't think the ingredients are only Oreos and cream cheese with chocolate on the outside! I made little baggies of Oreo Truffles, Peanut Butter Truffles and Coconut Rum Balls for my husband to give his coworkers- all guys- and these Oreo Truffles in particular were a hit. They're great made dipped in either regular chocolate almond bark or white chocolate almond bark.

A few tips:

-Almond bark's other name is chocolate candy coating and it doesn't actually have almonds in it. It's basically low quality chocolate but is just fine for this type of thing. You can find it in the baking aisle next to the chocolate chips and it basically looks like a very thick chocolate bar and is scored so you can break it into pieces. The grocery store we usually go to doesn't always have it but WalMart does.
-Parchment paper is amazing. You can bake cookies (and biscuits!) on it without them sticking (even without greasing it) and truffles come off it perfectly! Buy some if you don't have it already.
-To speed things along you can put more than one truffle in the container of chocolate at a time.
-A plastic fork with the middle tines broken off is perfect for lifting the truffles out of the chocolate.
-A toothpick works great for nudging the truffle off the fork and onto the parchment paper.

Oreo Truffles

16 oz Oreo cookies
8 oz brick cream cheese at room temperature
16 oz almond bark/candy coating
chocolate sprinkles (optional but good if you're making Peanut Butter Truffles too)

Pulverize Oreos in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. Place them in the bowl of a stand mixer along with the cream cheese and beat on low until well combined. Form mixture into balls the size of walnuts and refrigerate for an hour or so. Tear off a big sheet of parchment paper and place it on your work surface glossy side up. Heat the almond bark according to the directions on the package. Place the balls in the chocolate and use a spoon to pour chocolate on top. Lift them out of the chocolate with the plastic fork and scrape the excess off on the side of the bowl/container. Place on the parchment paper and sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles if you're using them. Let the chocolate set then store in a covered container in the refrigerator. They'll keep for about 2 weeks.

Yield: about 24 truffles.

Peanut Butter Truffles

Most people seem to associate Christmas with cookies but at our house we end up making other kinds of treats at Christmas, like these Peanut Butter Truffles, Oreo Truffles, Rice Krispie wreaths (which we regrettably didn't make this year) and the new but delicious addition of Coconut Rum Balls. Cookies are great but candies stay good longer and it's nice not to have only cookies. This is my third year of making Peanut Butter Truffles at Christmas because they're so good! You may have heard them called Buckeyes but we call them Peanut Butter Truffles because I dip the entire balls in chocolate instead of just the bottoms/sides (which is how Buckeyes are normally done) and Peanut Butter Truffle just sounds nicer. If you've never had them and love peanut butter, you should really give them a try. They practically melt in your mouth and are very tasty. Also I can't really attribute this recipe to anyone because it's the result of trial and error after looking at about 10 recipes.

A few tips:

-Weigh out the powdered sugar with a kitchen scale. I buy 2 lb bags and just weigh the bag, then add powdered sugar to the mixing bowl until I've added 14 ounces. Surely you will find a use for the rest of the sugar!
-Almond bark's other name is chocolate candy coating and it doesn't actually have almonds in it. It's basically low quality chocolate but is just fine for this type of thing. You can find it in the baking aisle next to the chocolate chips and it basically looks like a very thick chocolate bar and is scored so you can break it into pieces. The grocery store we usually go to doesn't always have it but WalMart does.
-Parchment paper is amazing. You can bake cookies (and biscuits!) on it without them sticking (even without greasing it) and truffles come off it perfectly! Buy some if you don't have it already.
-To speed things along you can put more than one truffle in the container of chocolate at a time.
-A plastic fork with the middle tines broken off is perfect for lifting the truffles out of the chocolate.
-A toothpick works great for nudging the truffle off the fork and onto the parchment paper.

Peanut Butter Truffles

1 stick butter at room temperature
18 oz peanut butter by weight (you can buy an 18 oz jar or scoop some out of a bigger jar)
1 t vanilla extract
14 oz powdered sugar by weight (I know, odd amount, but it's perfect)
16 oz package almond bark/chocolate candy coating

Place the butter, peanut butter and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment until well combined. Add the powdered sugar and mix on low until the powdered sugar has been incorporated. The mixture will look crumbly but it should be easy to form it into non-sticky, non-crumbly balls. You can add a little more peanut butter if it's too dry or a little powdered sugar if too wet but it should be fine. Also you can probably do this with a hand mixer too or just a spoon but it will likely be more difficult.

Once the mixture is ready, roll it into balls the size of walnuts. Tear off a big sheet of parchment paper and place it on your work surface glossy side up. Heat the almond bark according to the directions on the package. Place the balls in the chocolate and use a spoon to pour chocolate on top. Lift them out of the chocolate with the plastic fork and scrape the excess off on the side of the bowl/container. Place on the parchment paper and let set. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator. They'll keep for at least 3 weeks or so.

Yield: 40-45 truffles

Coconut Rum Balls

Until today I'd never made rum balls, but they turned out so well that I have to share! I made this recipe from Allrecipes and all I changed was that I used coconut rum (because it's delicious) and rolled them in a mixture of powdered sugar and cocoa powder (because I'm not wild about the flavor of powdered sugar on its own). The recipe says to let them sit for a week before serving and they're already very good so I'm quite curious about how they'll be 7 days from now! In any case, I think these will become an annual tradition. Hopefully my husband's coworkers will like them too because I plan to send them these along with Oreo truffles and peanut butter truffles, which I plan to make tomorrow.

Okay, should I do it? It's a little embarrassing, but I DID announce this when I started to prepare the recipe, so... Let's get ready to rum ballllll!


Coconut Rum Balls

12 oz box Nilla Wafers (I used the store brand)
1 C chocolate chips
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C coconut rum
3 T corn syrup
1/2 C powdered sugar
1 T cocoa powder

Pulverize the Nilla Wafers in a food processor until you have fine crumbs. A 12 oz box should yield 2 1/2 cups of crumbs. Place the crumbs in a large mixing bowl. Put the chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, stir, microwave 30 seconds more and stir, then repeatedly microwave 15 seconds and stir until chips are melted. Be careful not to cook the chocolate too long or it will seize up and be unusable!

When the chips have melted, stir in the sugar, coconut rum and corn syrup until well combined. Stir into the cookie crumbs. Let the mixture sit at room temperature until it's pretty much solidified. You can stick it in the fridge to help along the process. When it's ready, the mixture should be quite stiff but easy to roll into balls slightly smaller than golf balls.

Combine the powdered sugar and cocoa powder, then roll the balls in the mixture. Brush off the excess sugar. Store in a covered container. You can start eating them immediately but the flavors meld more over time.

Yield: about 30 balls.