i think we can all agree that it’s officially holiday season. and what that means for many of us (or most of us, i’m guessing, especially if you’re reading this site) is baking tons of cookies. my favorites are sugar cookies and krumkakes (traditional norwegian cookies).
at a lovely mini-holiday get-together in california with our friends (many of whom we haven’t seen since we left for washington, and all of whom we’ve missed dearly), we were lucky enough to enjoy a wide selection of their homemade holiday cookies. the treats included peanut butter with peanut butter m&m cookies, nutella fudge, dulce de leche cookies, peanut butter fudge, traditional chocolate fudge, pineapple upside down cake, and doughnuts. YUM!
eating all of these amazing desserts inspired me to try out some new cookie recipes, and get out of my traditional holiday cookie rut. so i jumped at the chance to make buckeye cookies with my mother-in-law today!
what’s a buckeye? well, if you are from ohio (like my mother-in-law), aka “the buckeye state,” you’d know that it’s a nut that looks a lot like these cookies. i have no idea what a buckeye actually tastes like, but i do know what these cookies taste like – peanut butter cups. amazingly delicious, better-than-store-bought, can’t-eat-just-one (or four!) peanut butter cups.
these simple, no-bake, 5-ingredient cookies were a snap to make – you just have to mix peanut butter, cream cheese, graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and powdered sugar together, then roll them into balls. dipping the cookies into melted chocolate in such a way as to make them look like buckeyes, however, was a little bit more challenging. so despite the cute name and resemblance to buckeyes, i think i’ll dip the entire cookie into chocolate next time i make them – and there will definitely be a next time, dear readers, because these cookies complete me.
one year ago: latkes and applesauce
two years ago: persimmon spice bread
buckeye (peanut butter and chocolate) cookies
yields approx 6 dozen cookies
borrowed from smitten kitchen
- 1½c peanut butter
- 1/4c cream cheese
- 1c graham cracker crumbs (approx 14 crackers, crumbled)
- 3c powdered sugar
- 10T butter, melted
- 12oz dark chocolate, melted
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- beat the peanut butter and cream cheese together with an electric mixer
- add the graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter, and mix with an electric mixer until well combined
- set the peanut butter mixture aside, and melt the chocolate in a microwave for a few minutes until it is completely melted and smooth
- line two cookie sheets with parchment paper
- scoop (with a mini ice cream scoop or a tablespoon measurer) approx 1T sized cookies, roll the cookie into a ball in your hands, then place onto the cookie sheet
- once the cookies are made, use toothpicks to dip the cookies individually into the melted chocolate, then place onto the cookie sheet*
- allow the cookies to chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes, then eat!
*we had a little trouble with this step – we found that the temperature of the chocolate needed to stay warm so the cookies didn’t fall off the toothpicks, and we needed to re-nuke the chocolate a few times. we also thought the cookies might taste better if they were completely covered in chocolate, instead of leaving the top of the cookie without chocolate to resemble a buckeye