Ever year for as long as I can remember, my mom has made peanut butter balls, toffee and peanut brittle to give as gifts for Christmas. A couple of years ago she taught me how to make them and I began to carry on the tradition. I don't really have a yearning to continue on with toffee and peanut brittle as they really contain a whole lot of sugar along with high temperatures I am not so comfortable with. But peanut butter balls? That's a whole different story. Sometime this last year I had made some pb granola bars for my boyfriend but had been out of chocolate chips at the time. I decided to remedy this by dipping the granola bars in melted chocolate at a later time. I then discovered that any time I have melted chocolate is a good time to make peanut butter balls.
The recipe for peanut butter balls only contains a few ingredients. My mom uses skippy peanut butter, rice crispies, powdered sugar and butter with a coating of melted chocolate and paraffin wax. I follow her recipe but replace the skippy with some all natural (non-hydrogenated) peanut butter and some crisp brown rice rather than rice crispies which I haven't read the ingredients on in so long, but I am pretty sure would have high fructose corns syrup. And of course I used vegan butter.
Peanut butter balls are pretty easy.
1 lb powdered sugar
3 cups crisp rice
2 cups peanut butter (crunchy or smooth)
1/2 cup vegan butter (I used earth balance)
Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.
Take a small spoonful and roll it into a ball.
Place on a wax paper lined cookie sheet.
Repeat until they are all rolled.
Melt 12 oz of chocolate along with 1/4 bar of paraffin wax and dip each ball.
Place on wax paper. Repeat and then put the cookie sheet in the fridge to harden.
I didn't use enough paraffin wax this time and so mine have a tendency to melt in your hand. I need to do some research though on what goes into paraffin wax...scary thought just entered my head that it might not be vegan.
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