Peanut butter candy
My girlfriend wants to make what she once learned as "buckey candy", but all the recipes we are finding require a pound of sugar per recipe plus in some cases paraffin. We use good organic fresh-ground peanut butter from the co-op, and she just got some good chocolate to use. If anyone can help us with recipes to avoid the ton of sugar I'd appreciate it. Perhaps a honey substitution? Help?
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13 Comments:
I don't think honey will work for you because the sugar is important for texture., ie., firmness. Honey would make the filling even more liquid. You want to get it firm enough to hold its shape. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that would work well for that.
If you don't want to dip in straight chocolate, you can make a simple ganache with a little cream and dip in that.
You might be able to chill the peanut butter so it's solid enough to shape, but I have this impression that the fresh-ground stuff is even more liquid, and it does need some extra sweetness.
How would you fill about using a smaller quantity of sugar and accepting a slightly runnier filling as a compromise?
renzata at 10:00PM on 12/17/07
Just to add: it is candy, and it is the holidays, so not to worry too much about the sugar...
renzata at 10:01PM on 12/17/07
I recently made a decent buckeye with peanut butter, honey, and coconut flour (available at whole foods, etc.) -- The coconut flour tightened the mixture up to the right consistency and made them taste like chick-o-sticks, which was a good thing in my opinion!
Unfortunately I have no recipe to offer as I went by taste alone...
Dominic
the zen kitchen
dvchurch at 10:28PM on 12/17/07
We love a recipe for Buckeyes we found in the Penzey's catalog years ago. It's the one Christmas dessert item my kids adore making and eating.
Go to http://www.penzeysone.com/cgi-bin/one/cookies.html to read it and see photos.
Our favorite part is that it makes "a gazillion".
moibec at 8:06AM on 12/18/07
One thought - candymakers use small amounts of paraffin to help create a smooth coating. I think you can make these and omit its use - just dip them in the melted chocolate and keep the balls well-chilled in a tin in the fridge.
Also when googling for the buckeye recipe came across a recipe that adds well-chopped Butterfingers to the peanut butter mixture. Haven't tried it yet, but it sure sounds pretty wonderful...!
moibec at 8:19AM on 12/18/07
(OT) Dominic: I made your wine jelly over the weekend with two-buck Chuck. So easy and so good. I'm giving some as gifts and used a little bit last night with lemon juice, capers, and the brown bits from the chicken I had just sauteed. Just wanted to say thanks!
Kerosena at 9:43AM on 12/18/07
Kerosena -- glad you liked it! I love gifting the wine jelly...it's elegant and people think it took a lot to do :-)
Dominic
the zen kitchen
dvchurch at 12:44PM on 12/18/07
I just made buckeyes the other day. Pound of sugar??? HUH???
2 cups of peanut butter (most rec reviews show that the natural peanut butter does NOT hold up well in buckeyes)
1 stick of butter, softened
3 1/2 cups of sifted powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
beat to combine into dough, roll into balls, chill and dip into chocolate. ( I used Merckens milk chocolate disks, melted in low oven in a pyrex until smooth.)
**Dominic...also made wine jelly, both pino grigio and merlot...WOW! Thank you so much for such a spectacular idea!**
ChelleyD01 at 1:24PM on 12/18/07
Oh wait and when people don't have the time to roll and dip the little balls, they spread the filling in a pyrex, chill, cover with the chocolate, chill and cut into 1x1 squares...maybe an idea to cut the sugar and use the natural peanut butter.
ChelleyD01 at 1:26PM on 12/18/07
(momentary time-out from the buckeye discussion)
Zen and Kerosena....
Wine jelly?!? Are you willing to share the recipe...? Sounds like something a lot of folks on my list would love to get!
moibec at 4:03PM on 12/18/07
Chelley, just to note that 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar is approximately 1 pound.
Milk chocolate might be a good idea here, if you don't like the wax or want to make a ganache. It could be creamy enough to stay smooth and a little soft.
renzata at 5:49PM on 12/18/07
moibec (et. al.) -- here's the link to my wine jelly recipe:
http://www.thezenkitchen.com/2007/06/wine-jelly.html
It's sooooo easy!
Dominic
the zen kitchen
dvchurch at 12:05AM on 12/19/07
Back to the buckeyes -- you could cut the paraffin (which shouldn't scare you so much -- it passes right through you and is in a ton of food already, but i understand...) IF you temper your chocolate correctly. If you manage to do that, it will set up hard and shouldn't need the stabilization of the wax.
A trick to tempering-- slowly heat your chocolate (milk, semi-sweet -- it doesn't matter) to no higher than 92F. If it was properly tempered already, it won't lose it.
Dominic
the zen kitchen
dvchurch at 12:08AM on 12/19/07