Pumpkin White Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

I remember the first time I tried buckeyes. You know, those little peanut butter and chocolate candies. 

I thought, oh, those are peanut butter balls without the tops. At our house growing up, we made peanut butter balls. It’s essentially the same recipe, you just dip the entire peanut butter ball in the chocolate versus creating the buckeye look by leaving its top exposed. 

I like our version better. I’m not sure if it’s because I like chocolate or because if you google buckeye your first page of search results will be for Ohio State and I went to undergrad at Purdue. Either way, ours are better. I stand by it. 

With those peanut butter balls in mind, I was thinking about how I could put a seasonal twist on them and switch them up just a bit. 

I love the combination of pumpkin and peanut butter. I’ve used it in pumpkin peanut butter cookies in the past. So I mixed some fresh pumpkin puree into the filling and loaded it up with pumpkin pie spice. It was a welcomed use for the jars of that stuff sitting in my pantry that I use once a year. 

I did some highly scientific research and tasted the filling with some dark chocolate and then with some white chocolate. White chocolate won, so that is what I used to coat them. 

Spiced, rich, and sweet. Just what you want in a holiday treat. 

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup natural peanut butter, room temperature*
1/4 cup pie pumpkin puree**
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
Pinch of fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

PREPARATION

Place the peanut butter and pumpkin in the bowl of a mixer and mix on medium until combined, about 2 minutes. 

Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Continue to mix, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the pumpkin pie spice. Take the mixer to high and mix until the filling comes together as a dough-like ball in the center of the bowl. 

Roll the filling into 20 balls, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Place the balls on a baking sheet or plate lined with parchment paper and freeze for 30 minutes. 

When the peanut butter balls are ready to come out of the freezer, melt half of the white chocolate chips in a small deep bowl or cup (like a Pyrex 1 cup measuring cup) in 15-second increments, stirring in between until melted. Remove the balls from the freezer and use a fork to transfer them, one at a time to the melted chocolate. Toss gently to coat and then tap the fork several times on the side of the dish to drain any excess chocolate. Transfer the balls back to the baking sheet. (I use a toothpick to slide under the ball to transfer it off the fork and prevent from marking the chocolate coating.) 

When you are close to running out of chocolate, add the remaining chocolate chips and melt as above to continue coating the remaining peanut butter balls. The chocolate should set quickly. Once it does, use any remaining chocolate to drizzle over the top. Let sit for 30 minutes until the white chocolate is completely hardened. 

*Be sure to use true natural peanut butter, just peanuts and salt. I also used peanut butter from a previously opened jar in the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature. Other types of peanut butter or that from a newly opened jar may influence the consistency of the filling. 

**I used puree from a freshly roasted pie pumpkin. I haven’t tested this with canned pumpkin puree. I expect it would be similar, but can’t say for sure.