Snowmen peanut butter balls

 SNOWMEN PEANUT BUTTER BALLS

Whatabout ye folks, back again with another Christmas treat.  I have to admit though as pretty confident as I am in my cooking and baking abilities, the one thing I can admit defeat on is decorating my bakes.  These poor little snowmen, oh how I feel for them, teehee.  They may look a bit odd, but they taste amazing particularly with the beautiful white chocolate from Callebaut.  It's really a superior chocolate brand (not sponsored.....I wish, teehee) and it may be expensive (like everything these days) but when you make an item with so little ingredients, you want them to taste amazing.

I made these a few years ago, but made them as a single ball covered in dark Callebaut chocolate.  But this year I thought I'd try the snowmen as I know white chocolate goes great with peanut butter.  These do need to be stored in the fridge as there is butter in the recipe and you don't want it melting in the body of the snowman and going off.

So, you can choose to make them into single peanut butter balls covered in milk or dark chocolate or make them into snowmen, like these.....but you'll do a better job decorating them, lol.

Makes 54 single peanut butter balls or 40 snowmen

480g smooth peanut butter

140g soft room temp butter - I use salted Irish butter (of course!)

2 TSP vanilla

480g icing sugar

Upwards of possibly 750g Tempered Chocolate to coat & chopped peanuts to top if wanted or pink Himalayan sea salt.  You chose white, milk or dark chocolate.  Amounts may vary, depending on how thick you like to enrobe your peanut balls.  Have extra chocolate on hand just in case, but if there's some left over just place it in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for the next chocolate recipe.

If making the snowmen, buy some carrot sprinkles for his nose.  You'll also want a small amount of milk or dark chocolate for his smile and buttons.  Or use sprinkles if you have them.  If you want the same carrot sprinkles I bought, click HERE

1. In a stand mixer or using electric beaters, cream butter & peanut butter together well until smooth approximately 3 mins or so.

2.  Add in vanilla & icing sugar & beat until incorporated. Should only take a minute or 2.  When adding the icing sugar, place a tea towel over the mixer to stop the plume of icing sugar dust going all over your kitchen.....ask me how I know, teehee,

3.  If making single balls, shape into 20g balls & place on a parchment covered pan. I wear food safe gloves for this as it can get messy.  If the dough is just too soft to shape, place in the fridge for 10-30 mins to firm up and then roll into balls.

If making white chocolate snowmen peanut butter balls, weight 17-18g body - 7-8g head. 

4.  Chill for at least 1 hour or even overnight which is what I prefer to do.

5.  Once chilled, add the balls/snowmen onto lollipop/cake pop sticks.  I dip the end of the stick into a wee touch of melted chocolate first and then add the peanut butter ball on.  Be careful at this step as the balls have had time to solidify and could crack if you are too forceful adding the sticks.  If the peanut balls are too hard, leave them out of the fridge for 10 mins and try again.  HOWEVER, these come to room temperature very quickly, so when you are dunking a batch in chocolate, keep another batch in the fridge until ready to dip them. 

6.  Dip both types of balls in tempered chocolate of choice.  If you are making the single peanut butter balls, you can dip the tops in crushed dry roasted peanuts to top of you want.

For the snowmen, dunk in white chocolate & immediately add the carrot sprinkle to his face.  Add some milk or dark chocolate to a small pastry bag and pipe the face and buttons on the snowmen, once their chocolate coating has hardened.  

7.  AGAIN - PLEASE STORE IN THE FRIDGE AS THERE IS BUTTER IN THE RECIPE

And that's it from me folks.  A very Merry Christmas to you all and a healthy and happy New Year!  

Toodles Noodles.....Lee aka Crafty Loops xx

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