Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

Twelve Days of Cookie Baking — Day 2

Create memories your families and friends will savor for years to come

Carol Titus remembers her three young daughters helping to make these easy no-bake cookies over the years. The recipe yields 160 marble-size peanut butter balls but Carol’s little kitchen assistants didn’t often adhere to that tiny dimension. “Whatever size of balls the girls made worked out fine,” Carol recalls. “That happened to be a good thing as it didn’t take as long to make them nor did we eat as many.” CJK

Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

 (Carol Titus)

1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter

1 lb. powdered sugar

1 cup peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla

12 oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/8 lb. paraffin wax

Mix the butter, powdered sugar, peanut butter and vanilla together in large bowl. Cover the bowl and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour or in the freezer for 15 or 20 minutes.

Roll the dough into small balls, place on cookie sheet and chill again — in the refrigerator for at least an hour or in the freezer for 15 or 20 minutes.

In preparation for dipping the balls, melt the chocolate chips and paraffin wax together in a double boiler over low heat and continue to keep warm over very low heat.

Using a toothpick, dip the balls into the chocolate/wax mixture. Place on waxed paper until cool.

Yield: 160 balls the size of marbles

A note from Carol Titus: Keep the chocolate thin for easy dipping — add more wax as needed. The more cookies you dip, the thicker the chocolate mixture gets. The amount of chocolate and wax that you’ll need also depends upon the size of the balls — the bigger they are, the more you are going to use.

A note from Carol JK: Carol’s been making these tempting creations for more than 25 years. She noted that they appeal equally to adults and children and tend to disappear quickly!