Peanut Butter Balls

These Peanut Butter Balls were a holiday staple in my house, one of my mom's "Christmas Candies" that she's been making for as long as I can remember.  According to the recipe, they are actually called Chocolate Graham Cracker Balls, but I choose to just call them Peanut Butter Balls... and I'm publishing this online so I think this suffices as an official name change.

This is a super simple recipe (with the possible exception of actually dipping them in the chocolate with dropping them), and they're delicious.  Of course they are.  Who doesn't like peanut butter and chocolate, combined with cookies and lots of sugar?!

There were often multiple batches of Peanut Butter Balls in my house growing up because my dad and brother don't like coconut, and I don't like nuts.  Both of those are optional ingredients, clearly.  You can choose which type of chocolate pieces to use.  I recommend milk or dark chocolate.  The semisweet chocolate chips are just not sweet enough after melting them with the paraffin wax.

Ingredients:

For Peanut Butter Balls:

2 cups crushed graham cracker crumbs

1 cup pecan chopped fine (optional)

7-oz. chopped coconut (optional)

2 sticks of margarine

10-oz. confectioners sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 small jar creamy peanut butter

For Dipping:

3/4 cake paraffin wax

1 pkg chocolate pieces

1.  Melt wax with 1 pkg chocolate pieces in a double boiler (or you can use a bowl over a pot of boiling water if you don't have a double boiler).

2.  Mix the peanut butter ball ingredients and make them into balls.  Chill for 30 minutes.

3.  Dip balls into chocolate from the double boiler, using toothpicks, and allow them to dry on wax paper.

Note:  If the balls are falling apart as you try to dip them, try chilling them for longer, or even putting them in the freezer.  When I made them this year, my kitchen was too hot because there was a lot of baking happening at once and they kept falling apart!  I put them in the freezer and tried again once all of the other items were finished!