A Healthier Buckeye Candy!

Who says buckeye candies can't be slightly good for you?? As you all know, I love to modify recipes. One of my favorite desserts during fall football season, and the holidays, are buckeyes (balls of peanut butter and sugar, covered with chocolate, which are meant to mimic the look of a poisonous Ohio buckeye nut). Most buckeyes have loads of sugar, fat, and calories. I'll be honest, mine are still pretty calorie, sugar, and fat packed, but I've definitely made them a little more nutritious....

Ingredients

1.5 cups nut butter

(**I used 1/2 cup almond butter, 1/2 cup Smucker's organic natural peanut butter, and 1/2 cup Better'n Peanut Butter**)



1 cup butter, softened
(**I used Smart Balance 50/50 butter blend sticks**)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups confectioner's sugar

~1/2 bag melted Dove dark chocolate

Directions

- Mix together the nut butters, vanilla, and softened butter until well blended

- Add the confectioners sugar, a little at a time. Blend the confectioner's sugar, butter, and nut butters until you have a large bowl of a soft delicious "dough"

- Start creating small little balls and put them onto a wax paper-lined baking sheet (the smaller they are, the less calories each buckeye will be!). I made my buckeyes about 1 inch in diameter. My mom (below) made hers massive, at about 2 inches in diameter.

- Insert toothpicks into each ball and put the balls in the freezer for about 30 minutes (hehe, that sounds funny...sorry, I'm such a child!)

- Using a double broiler (or just a bowl) heat one bag of Dove dark chocolate until it's nice and melted

- Retrieve the balls from the freezer and start dipping! You will dip each ball so that chocolate covers a little more than half.


- Put in freezer to let chocolate get dry. Enjoy after about 3-4 hours!

Total calories: ~100 (make them even smaller for less calories)

Other Nutrition Highlights: More vitamin E and magnesium due to the addition of the almond butter, and less fat and calories due to the use of Better'n Peanut Butter instead of all regular full fat nut butter! Also by using dark chocolate you may be getting a bit more phytonutrients, which could play a role in heart health.

Question: Have you ever had a buckeye?

When I was a kid we used to go to a huge party for the OSU/Michigan game each year. At the party there were always loads of buckeyes and black olives (yeah, I know, random). I can remember eating AT LEAST 6 buckeyes and 20 black olives (I put them on my fingers) during that 4 hour period. I can't believe I never got sick!