I’ll try not to drag on as it has been many years since I last blogged, let alone type and story told, if you will….
Back when I was 18, I just blogged about my daily angsty rants and why I hated this or who pissed me off, but I feel that now I am older (it pains me to even say that), and blogging/posting/sharing just about anything has come along way.
In the last 3 years, I have developed a hobby and joy in baking. I find that it becomes my time of zen and that I can just sit in my cramped New York apartment kitchen/living room and create. So after a good friend, who herself makes amazing home cooked dishes, convinced me about starting a blog, I decided to take the plunge and go for it.
It a few short words, I have been, for the past 6 months, baking lovely desserts every Sunday and posting my cutesy little photos on Instagram. Overtime, I have accumulated likes here and there along with some followers, nothing too grand of course! With so many talented ‘gramers posting their food for the world to see, I am simply a tiny fish in a big pond, and I am completely fine with it. For the most part, these recipes are not my own, and will give credit to those where credit is due. I will never take credit for others as my own. This is simply a place for me to show what I’ve enjoyed to do, and hope others enjoy as well.
I met my now husband of almost 3 years roughly 7 years ago. We met on the online MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) World of Warcraft. Both being huge gamers, we spent most of our “quality time” raiding with friends. He finally made the leap December of 2009 to move to NYC with me. He being originally from Cincinnati, it was quite a difference.
What we try to do, the most we can, is go and visit his family in Cincinnati. This past Friday we, few months in advance, set time off of work and booked a trip to go see them for the weekend. Impending weather both in Cincinnati and New York seemed to put a damper on any hope of that happening. We arrived at the LGA at 7:30am that Friday morning. In the cab ride going to the airport, I get a text message from Delta Airlines saying the flight was cancelled, but that they had put us on the next available. When we arriving at check-in we find out that the next available flight was not only delayed, but had 2 additional layovers, with us not getting to our destination until 11:45pm that night. The average direct flight from LGA > CVG is 2hrs. So a 2hr trip turning into a 12 hour trip was unfortunately not in the plans. Frustrated, my husband called his family to let them know and we headed home.
When I first visited my husband in Cincinnati he introduced me to this lovely candy called Buckeyes. Peanut butter wrapped in chocolate, what is there not to love? As we headed home from the airport we were practically tasting his mom’s homemade buckeye candies and were disappointed that we wouldn’t be able to.
Not being able to get them out of my head, I decided, while I may not be able to replicate his mom’s recipe, that I would make some in hopes of satisfy that craving.
Scouring the internet, I stumbled upon this great recipe from The Brown Eyed Baker (link at the end of post) and I figured I would give it a whirl.
Couple of years ago my parents were gracious enough to buy me my own Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Let me tell you this is my go to for anything, and I love it with all my heart. This recipe had called for everything to be hand mixed, which I unfortunately have horrible upper body strength. If I know anything about mixing peanut butter, was that it was a work out for your arms!
Combining the peanut butter and softened butter was no problem, but adding that 4 cups of powdered sugar made it damn near impossible. Toward the 4th cup I gave up and just used my hands to finish up the rest. the powdered sugar did really help to stiffen up the peanut butter mixture and it was fairly easy to roll out the balls. The recipe stated that it makes up to 8 dozen, and I barely came out with 4. Not sure if I made them larger than 1 inch, but none the less I did not have the room to freeze 8 dozen peanut butter balls, so I was better off.
30 minutes in the freezer and now its time to dip those suckers! My husband helped play a huge part in dipping these peanut butter balls as I wanted to make sure they resembled the perfect buckeye. Using a sauce pan on a low simmer and a heat safe bowl, we slowly melted the chocolate with a 1/4 cup of shortening, which apparently helps the chocolate adhere better. Once it was melted, using those handy toothpicks we dipped the peanut butter balls with just a little of the top exposed to resemble a buckeye.
After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, only 2 hours in the fridge, they were done and ready for snacking!
Follow me on Instagram @phreya to see my weekly baking!
Peanut Butter Buckeyes Recipe- Brown Eyed Baker
With Sugar on Top 