No Bake Peanut Butter Balls
These simple No Bake Peanut Butter Balls are amazingly creamy in the inside, and slightly crunchy on the outside. An amazing holiday treat, but you can use different sprinkles for any occasion!
Tis the season for Holiday Cookie Platters! We love including the Best Ever Snickerdoodle Cookies, Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars, Peppermint Mocha Cookies, and some White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies! Or try a healthier treat – some Healthy Peanut Butter Cups!
12 Days of Holiday Treats
Welcome to the 12 Days of Holiday Treats! We’re on day eight now, and I want to remind you of everything I’ve shared to date! Choose your favorites and make an amazing holiday tray this year!
- Brownie Crinkle Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Gingersnap Cookies
- Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- Easy Cut Out Sugar Cookies
- Christmas Tree Brownie Bites
- Dark Chocolate Toffee
- White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
- And today’s treat….No Bake Peanut Butter Balls!
Peanut Butter Balls
Peanut butter balls were a mainstay when we were kids. My mom made a variety of holiday treats and froze them. So when we gathered, she’d head to the freezer and put together a tray of goodies for us. Chewy sugar cookies, homemade toffee, peanut clusters, homemade caramels, peanut brittle (she struggled with that one!), chocolate covered pretzels, and chocolate turtles.
I love these memories, and have been been accumulating a variety of treats in my freezer as well. If If I can keep myself from sending everything with Mike to work, I’ll be able to put together a pretty epic tray for our Christmas activities as well!
Ingredients Used
- Peanut Butter – You can use creamy or crunchy peanut butter (or a combo of both).
- Graham Crackers – You’ll need about 1 3/4 sleeves of graham crackers.
- Powdered Sugar – I’ve been sifting the powdered sugar now to avoid those annoying clumps. If you have a sifter, I recommend it!
- Vanilla – We prefer the Watkins brand, but any vanilla extract will work.
- Butter – I always use unsalted butter in my recipes.
- Chocolate – I prefer to use Ghirardelli chocolate melting wafers. They melt nicely in the microwave, and are a good quality brand of chocolate.
- Sprinkles – I used Christmas colored sprinkles for this batch. But feel free to make these for any holiday and use a variety of colors.
How to make this peanut butter ball recipe
Step 1
Crush graham crackers. Use a food processor to crush the graham crackers. You want the crackers to be finely processed.
Step 2
Combine ingredients. In a mixing bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, peanut butter, powdered sugar, softened butter, and vanilla. Use a hand mixer to combine everything until very well mixed.
Step 3
Form balls. After the mixture has been combined, chill for about an hour. Then remove from the refrigerate and use your hands to form about 30 peanut butter balls, These are quite small. After the balls are formed, freeze for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate wafers in the microwave
Chilling the peanut butter mixture will make it much easier to handle. This will make the rolling process very smooth.
Step 4
Coat with chocolate. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, heating at 50% power in short increments, and stirring frequently. Be careful to avoid burning!
Use a spoon to coat the peanut butter balls in the chocolate, shaking off excess as you go. If the chocolate starts to harden, simply heat up again in the microwave, and proceed. I usually only heat up about half of the chocolate at a time, and then prepare more as I go.
Step 5
Add sprinkles. After you coat the balls in chocolate, lay them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Add sprinkles immediately as the chocolate will set quickly.
Step 6
Store. Place the baking sheet in the freezer to set the chocolate completely. Then store them in an airtight container and place in the refrigerator to store them.
These peanut butter balls freeze well up to three months.
Expert Tips
- Set the butter out ahead of time so that is softened before mixing the ingredients together.
- Sifting the powdered sugar will eliminate any large clumps. I always recommend sifting this type of sugar.
- Make sure you refrigerate the mixture before forming into balls. Even then, you will probably need to put the balls in the freezer and then reform them slightly. The mixture is quite sticky so freezing it will make for easier handling.
- After the peanut butter balls are nice and cold, melt the chocolate and dip them. Follow that by a few sprinkles, making sure you add the sprinkles immediately after dipping because the chocolate sets very quickly.
- You can serve these peanut butter balls for any holiday. Hosting a baby shower? Use pink, blue, or a variety of other sprinkles. Planning an Easter gathering? Use some pastel sprinkles! The sky is the limit.
Why we love this recipe
- No bake! No need to turn on the oven for this recipe. You’ll need to CHILL this one instead!
- Impressive on party trays. These little gems are pretty gorgeous to look at, if I say so myself. The chocolate glistens like Christmas lights, and the sprinkles take them up another notch (kind of like ornaments on your tree!). I love how they look, don’t you?
- Melt-in-your-mouth delicious. Most importantly, these literally melt in your mouth. Trust me. You’re going to love them!
Kitchen Tools Used: (affiliate links)
xoxo ~Sue
No Bake Peanut Butter Balls
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups creamy peanut butter
- 1.5 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs – about 1 3/4 sleeves
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter – at room temperature
- 12-15 oz. Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers
- sprinkles – miscellaneous
Instructions
- Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a food processor, add graham crackers and pulse until you get course crumbs.
- In a mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to combine the graham cracker crumbs, peanut butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and softened butter. Cream together until very well mixed. Chill the mixture for at least an hour.
- Form into approximately 34 small balls and place on baking sheet. Place in freezer for 30 minutes to make them easier to handle.
- Take the balls out of the freezer and re-roll the cold peanut butter balls into nice, even shapes.
- Melt chocolate wafers in microwave. Dip peanut butter balls in chocolate, and place back on baking sheet. Add sprinkles as you go so they stick to the chocolate.
- Refrigerate until set.
Video
Notes
- Make sure you refrigerate the mixture before forming into balls. Even then, you will probably need to put the balls in the freezer and then reform them slightly. The mixture is quite sticky so freezing it will make for easier handling.
- After the peanut butter balls are nice and cold, melt the chocolate and dip them. Follow that by a few sprinkles, making sure you add the sprinkles immediately after dipping because the chocolate sets very quickly.
- For best results, store these peanut butter balls in the refrigerator.
- They can also be frozen, in an airtight container, for up to three months.
I hid a few of these in my freezer for when my Christmas company left! Sat down with a hot cup of coffee and a couple of peanut butter balls and took a deep breath and relaxed! 🙂 Yum!!
What a great visual! Peanut Butter Balls make everything better! 🙂
Love, love, love these. All the memories in making and eating them. Takes me back to all the Christmas’s as a kid. Who doesn’t love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter?!! Yum!!!
SO many memories! Thanks Shari!
These little treats are extremely delicious! They were pretty easy to make but I had a smarty pants moment and put them on a rack after dipping them in the chocolate. They would have been so much prettier if I had used parchment paper because I really had to work to get them off the rack. I’ll definitely make these again!
Thanks so much for trying these Linda! Remember to use parchment paper next time! haha!
This is the same recipe my Grandma Nelms used for as long as I could remember and passed on to me so I can attest to it’s wonderful flavor! It is an asset to any get together.
I’m so glad you are a fan of this recipe, Cyndi! Enjoy! 🙂
yum! i love peanut butter balls and these look absolutely delicious! can’t wait to try them for Christmas!
Yay!! Let me know how you like them, Natalie!! 🙂
Besides the awesome taste, these bite size balls never leave you feeling guilty for having ☝️ or two. Win Win!