Recipes for "peanut butter truffles"

Gather all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat shortening, peanut butter, brown sugar, and ½ cup white sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Beat egg into the creamy mixture until fully incorporated. Stir milk and vanilla extract into the mixture until smooth.

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl; add to peanut butter mixture in the large bowl and stir until completely incorporated into a dough.

Divide and shape dough into 48 balls.

Spread 1/4 cup white sugar into a wide, shallow bowl. Roll dough balls in sugar to coat and arrange about 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.

Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and quickly press a dimple into the center of each cookie using the blunt end of a wooden spoon. Cool cookies on sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Cut each chocolate truffle in half. Put one piece atop each cookie with the rounded side facing upwards.

Spoon frosting into a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, or use a resealable plastic bag with a corner snipped off. Dab a small amount of frosting onto the back of each candy eyeball and stick two onto each chocolate candy to resemble eyes. Then pipe frosting in four thin lines, starting at the base of the candy, on each side atop the cookie to resemble spider legs.

Let frosting harden at room temperature, about 30 minutes. Store cookies in an airtight container.

Take a medium-sized sauce pan and fill it with a couple inches of water. Put on the stovetop over medium heat. Spoon the peanut butter and Nutella into a bowl that, when placed over the sauce pan, will create a double boiler (or if you have a double boiler, which I obviously don’t, use that!). As the bowl heats, stir the ingredients together until they are warm and melty. Once the peanut butter and Nutella are fully combined, take the bowl off the heat and add the flakes. Gently stir, fully coating the flakes with the peanut butter and Nutella mixture.

Place tin foil or wax paper over a cookie sheet. Using your hands, take a handful of the mixture out of the bowl and place it on the cookie sheet, creating clusters equal to about ½ cup. Disclaimer: this will be messy! Continue to create clusters. This recipe should make about 12. Once the bowl is empty, be sure to get a few licks in of peanut butter and Nutella mixture before placing it in the sink. Waste not, want not. Sprinkle each cluster with a bit of Fluer de sel. Place the cookie sheet in the refrigerator and cool the clusters for a minimum of 2 hours.

Mix: Pulse JUST the peanuts in a food processor until they are broken down into fine crumbs. Add the dates, peanut butter, and vanilla to the food processor and pulse again to form a soft, sticky dough. Add the tablespoon of water if the mixture gets too sticky. For me, 1 tablespoon was just the right amount to get the mixture moving through the food processor without making it overly wet. Continue to pulse and press the mixture back down with a spoon until there are no more large pieces of dates or peanuts, and the mixture starts to stick together in one large ball.

Roll: Roll small pieces of “dough” between your hands to form small balls. The dough will leave a bit of an oily residue on your hands but should stick together really easily. Place on a plate or cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Refrigerate until you’re ready to dip in chocolate.

Dip: Melt the chocolate very slowly (double boiler, hot oven, or carefully in the microwave) and dip each ball into the chocolate. Remove the balls with two forks and let the excess drip off. Place on wax paper or parchment paper and allow the chocolate to set. You can put them in the refrigerator or freezer to keep them cold and/or help set the chocolate.