Buckeyes are balls of gussied-up peanut butter covered in chocolate, and are a big thing in Ohio, apparently. Larry grew up in Ohio but he didn’t seem to recognize them, although he’s not a huge peanut butter dessert fan anyway. Neither am I, so I expected to just make these and then foist them off onto other people as soon as they were done.

There isn’t anything particularly difficult about these – the peanut butter is mixed with sugar, cream cheese, butter and graham cracker crumbs in order to give it a bit more sweetness and structure. I like the addition of the graham cracker crumbs, because it allows for less straight sugar in the filling. The coating isn’t anything but pure melted chocolate – so it helps to use something with good quality (I used Valrhona).

Dipping the balls of peanut butter was a little tedious and time consuming. I used a little fork, which created little holes in the candy, but no one seemed to mind. A chocolate dipping fork would work well here but I was too lazy to go dig mine out. I had given most of these away, and there were just a few left in the refrigerator that Larry had forgotten to take to work, so I finally tried one. And then another. They taste like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup – but so much better. Despite my distaste for peanut butter, Reese’s are one candy I can’t resist (it must be the sugar). I loved these and think they would be great for a bake sale or party. Or frozen for an occasional treat.

Yet again, our Baked Sunday Mornings group has pushed me to make something I probably would have never made. It makes me so happy to be a part of this group! To get the recipe and see the other entries from this week’s Baked Sunday Mornings head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings.

• Buckeyes (Baked Explorations, p. 172)