Peanut Butter Dreams

These are the candy your grandmother made every Christmas and the church ladies brought to every potluck. Crunchy peanut butter, powdered sugar and crisp rice cereal get rolled into small balls, frozen until firm, then dunked in melted chocolate.

The rice cereal is the genius move. It breaks up the dense peanut butter filling with a faint crackle, like a homemade Crunch bar. Without it the balls would be too rich to eat more than one.

Freezing the balls for a full hour before dipping is what keeps the chocolate coating thin and even. Warm balls melt into the chocolate bath and you end up with a sticky mess instead of a clean shell.

Kitchen Tips

• The original recipe uses food-grade paraffin to thin the chocolate and help it set glossy. If you’d rather skip it, substitute 1 tablespoon of refined coconut oil or use chocolate melting wafers (almond bark) which already include stabilizers.
• Use a fork or two toothpicks to dip the cold balls. Tap excess chocolate off the bottom against the rim of the pot before placing on waxed paper, otherwise you get chocolate puddles around each ball.
• Work in small batches and keep extra balls in the freezer between dips. Once they warm up, they get soft and break apart in the chocolate.
• Store in the fridge in a single layer (or with waxed paper between layers) so they don’t fuse together.
• These freeze beautifully for up to 3 months. Pull a few at a time straight from the freezer for unexpected guests.

Variations

• Use milk chocolate for a sweeter coating, or dark chocolate to balance the sugary filling.
• Roll the balls in chopped peanuts after dipping for extra crunch and a bakery look.
• Swap rice cereal for crushed pretzels for a salty-sweet, salt-bomb version that disappears even faster.