Peanut butter bliss-in-a-ball
1/4 cup butter or margarine, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups crunchy peanut butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 cups rice bubbles
a shake of salt, only if the peanut butter has none added
up to 500g dark chocolate
In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the first five ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes, so that the mixture's firm.
Cover a tray with foil or baking paper and make room for it in the freezer (this is no small task in our house). Use a teaspoon to measure out small quantities of the peanut butter mixture and roll them into balls, placing them on the tray. Aim for balls of 1.5 cm diameter, and handle the mixture as little as possible.
I needed to do about three trays full but could only fit one in the freezer at a time. I put the first tray in the freezer for about 15 minutes and returned the remaining peanut butter mixture to the fridge. Once that first tray were firm, I transferred them to a lunchbox where I could store them more densely and returned them to the freezer. I repeated this process until all the mix was used up and I had a lunchbox full of sweet peanut butter. Continue to store them in the freezer until all of them have had a good hour in there.
It's difficult to know how much chocolate you'll need. Start by melting 250g of it and take it off the heat. Plonk a peanut butter ball into the chocolate and use two forks to maneuvre it until it's coated all over in chocolate, and keep going with more balls until your old foil/paper-lined tray is full of them. Return the tray and the lunchbox to the freezer for 10-15 minutes, then continue the staggered process of chocolate coating the peanut butter balls until they're all done. You may need to re-melt the chocolate or add some more along the way. I actually decided to double-coat the balls in chocolate which lengthened this process interminably.
These store well in the freezer if you're going to transport them somewhere like our picnic, but can otherwise be stored in the fridge.
those muffins are great aren't they - I think the nuts make them feel more like a meal - I like the sound of caramelised onions and sundried tomatoes - will need to have a few experiments with flavours - and your peanut balls look very cute!
ReplyDeleteThose peanut butter balls looks great. I love peanut butter cups, peanut butter pretzels and well everything with peanut butter.
ReplyDeleteLast time I went to the moonlight cinema soul mama was there serving food, are they still there?
I have a weakness for Reese's peanut butter cups too (I made peanut butter brownies this weekend). The peanut butter balls look delicious and moreish as do the savoury muffins!
ReplyDeleteJohanna, the caramelised onions really suit the moist muffin recipe but they take a bit of extra time to make (I slow-cooked mine for 45 minutes!). I can't wait to try other flavourings, Heidi had some great ideas in her post.
ReplyDeleteKristy, sounds like you love peanut butter at least as much as I do! I'm sure you'd be into these. Since we packed all our own food I didn't even glance at the cinema food stalls. We'll be returning at least once more this season and I'll keep an eye out for Soulmama.
Thanks, Agnes! Another peanut butter/chocolate fan. :-)