Buckeyes

Total Time: 2 hrs Preparation Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 20 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons shortening

Recipe

• 1 cream the margarine and peanut butter until smooth.
• 2 add the vanilla extract and blend until smooth.
• 3 add the powdered sugar 1/2 - 1 cup at a time, blending well and scraping the bowl with each addition.
• 4 chill the peanut butter "dough" until easily handled (if not, your hands will get really messy!).
• 5 once chilled, roll the peanut butter dough into 1 inch balls (you should be able to get about 6-8 dozen).
• 6 melt 10 ounces of chocolate with 1 tablespoon of shortening in either a double boiler, or on medium power in the microwave.
• 7 transfer the melted chocolate into a deep bowl.
• 8 with a toothpick, dip each peanut butter ball into the chocolate to cover it about 3/4. there should be a circle of peanut butter showing on top. set each buckeye on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper to cool. i tend to put the sheet into the freezer for a few minutes because it prevents the chocolate from sticking.
• 9 if needed, melt the remaining 10 ounces of chocolate and 1 tbsp of shortening. (the original recipe i used said to use just one batch of the chocolate, but i definitely had to run out and get more chocolate to finish!).