This fantastic peanut butter balls recipe hits all the right notes for a sweet-meets-salty treat.
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Sometimes your sweet tooth is calling but the last thing you want is a sink full of dishes. No-bake recipes are the perfect answer! With only a handful of ingredients they’re easy as pie—in fact, much easier than pie.
There are plenty of no-bake recipes to keep in your back pocket, like No-Bake Chocolate Hazelnut Thumbprints and Coconut Joys, and even Butterscotch No-Bake Cookies. But nothing can beat the classic combination of peanut butter and chocolate in this Peanut Butter Balls recipe from Joanna Gaines. The perfect blend of salty and sweet, these are made even better with a crispy crunch in every bite.
Joanna Gaines’ Peanut Butter Balls Recipe
When Joanna Gaines shared this recipe on her Instagram, people went wild! And with good reason—they’re delicious, quick to make and work as well as an afternoon snack as they do dressed up in your holiday cookie tin.
This recipe makes about 2-½ dozen peanut butter balls.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix together the softened butter and peanut butter in a medium bowl. Add the confectioners’ sugar and mix until it forms almost a paste. Add in the Rice Krispies and mix until well incorporated.
Step 2: Form the balls
Jamie Thrower for Taste of Home
Form the mixture into balls, about the size of a tablespoon. You can use an ice cream scoop or a tablespoon for evenly sized balls. If they’re not sticking together, enough give them a bit of a squeeze before rolling them out.
Step 3: Dip in chocolate
Jamie Thrower for Taste of Home
In a small metal bowl over a double broiler, heat chocolate almond bark and oil until completely melted. Dip each ball into the chocolate, then set on the parchment paper. You can add sprinkles while the chocolate is still wet (though that’s optional), and allow them to rest on the parchment until the coating is dry, about 15 minutes. If you’re looking for more, you must try these chocolate-covered dates.
Here’s What I Thought
Jamie Thrower for Taste of Home
If you ask me, it’s hard to go wrong with the combination of chocolate and peanut butter! Especially when you add in a good crunch factor, and the Rice Krispies combined with the almond bark in this recipe give each peanut butter ball the perfect texture. What’s more, it’s a completely forgiving recipe, so even if you have a hard time following a recipe to a T, you’ll still walk away with a tasty treat.
Tips for This Peanut Butter Balls Recipe
Getty Images, Jamie Thrower for Taste of Home
Soften the butter
The most important thing is to make sure your butter has fully come to room temperature before starting. Butter is a crucial and persnickety ingredient in baking, and if it’s too cold, it won’t be possible to incorporate it into the peanut butter. If you forgot to set your butter out, use one of these tips to soften butter quickly.
Wear food-safe gloves
I recommend having disposable, food-safe gloves available for all the mixing. I mixed this whole recipe by hand from start to finish since the mixture is very thick, and incorporating all the ingredients with a spoon would be pretty difficult.
Use forks to help coat the balls in chocolate
When it comes time for the chocolate coating, I like to use two forks to toss the peanut butter balls into the warmed chocolate, so they get thoroughly coated. This keeps my hands from getting covered in chocolate, and it also helps the peanut butter balls keep their shape and get an even coating.
Finish cooling in the refrigerator
Once you’re all done, pop them in the fridge for a bit to make sure the chocolate is fully hardened. When you take that first bite, you’ll crack through the outer chocolate and into the peanut butter for the perfect salty-sweet combo.
You’ll be happy this recipe makes such a big batch so there’s plenty to go around!
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Risa Lichtman is a chef and writer living in Portland, Oregon. She is the owner/chef of Lepage Food & Drinks, a small food company featuring Jewish seasonal foods, providing takeaway all around Portland. She has previously published poems in Poetica Magazine, the anthology The Art of Bicycling, Maggid: A Journal of Jewish Literature, and The Dos Passos Review. She lives with her wife Jamie, their dog Isaac, and their cat Sylvia. Follow her at @risaexpizza, or find her delicious food offerings on @lepagefoodanddrinks.
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Updated: Feb. 02, 2023
