SkinnyBitch here! I realize I have been coming in fits and starts lately with my either feverish or relatively non-existent posts. Things have been a little chaotic here in my neck of the woods and my adventures in the kitchen have been limited. But that shouldn’t be an excuse, readers!! This is the exact reason why I dove right into my “handy-dandy notebook” this morning while enjoying a quiet cup of my new found favorite brew – Folgers’s French Vanilla Roast Coffee .. UGH. To. Die. For. I simply adore it!!
Anyways – my caffeine addiction is neither here nor there (aside from the fact that I am far more productive in the kitchen with a few 1000mg’s of the precious stuff coursing through my veins)!!
Finding my cupboards to be relatively sparse (aka almost a barren wasteland), I made a short list of requirements for the recipe that I needed; veryyyy few ingredients, fairly mindless, mildly time consuming and easy to freeze/long shelf-life.
Hmmm.
I thought on this through another cup of my vanilla-scented piece of Heaven, then took another spin around the kitchen. I had quite a portion of home-made peanut butter from posts-past, a bit of butter, powdered sugar, an opened box of graham crackers, 6 Hersey’s bars (from a s’mores adventure with my Partner in Crime Jr.) and my baking staples (vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg).
Hmmm.
GOOF BALLS (story to follow)!! Phewww!! My Skinny-Lightbulb still has some juice in it!!
Here’s how I do them –
Ingredients –
2c peanut butter (home-made if you have it, cough-cough!)
2c powdered sugar
2c graham cracker crumbs (I find that, on average 1 standard sleeve of crackers yields one cup of crumbs) *I have used crushed Oreo cookies here as well for an even more decadent ball – but that’s only when I’m feeling especially devilish!*
4T butter, melted
2t vanilla
1t cinnamon
1t nutmeg
2 bags of chocolate chips (or 6 Hershey’s bars if you’re finding yourself in a SkinnyBitch pinch!)
I measure everything (but the chocolate) into the bowl of my trusty KitchenAid and mix it up that way; it makes things super easy and far less labor intensive, not to mention less dishes for me later (I’m all about the easyyyyy!). Once you have your peanut butter, sugar, crumbs, butter and baking stables mixed well, take the bowl that you mixed it in and cover it with plastic wrap (making sure no dough is peaking out). Pop it into the fridge for at least 2 hours (overnight is ideal, though).
Following the waiting period, line a few sheet trays with foil. Now comes the fun part – take a tablespoon-sized measuring device and scoop beautiful balls of peanutty-dough onto your foil. Be patient, there will be a fair number of these orbs that require your attention.
After scooping, being your rolling, treating the process much like rolling meatballs. Upon finishing this step, pop the balls into the freezer to harden up a little and prepare them for their chocolate bath. Use this time to melt your chocolate chips (or bars .. haha) carefully in a saucepan on low.
Remove your balls from the freezer and begin the dipping process – I find that taking one at a time off the foil and into the chocolate, using a fork as the transport device, and then back onto the foil makes my life much easier. The fork allows you to shake off the excess chocolate a bit easier than a spoon would.
Once you finish the dipping, pop back into the freezer for about an hour to harden. Transfer into a Ziploc bag and keep in the freezer (generally, for a double batch of these it takes about 3-4 days in my house for these spheres to be devoured).
Now, this is the point at which the blog will take a therapeutic and cathartic turn for The SkinnyBitch. I apologize in advance for any overly sensitive babble that will take place – this recipe I created a year or so ago upon meeting my now very recent ex-boyfriend (referred to in posts-past as my Partner in Crime). He told me how is Grandmother used to make a “a ball thing that tasted like a Reese’s Cup”. He always had a way with words <eye roll>. But I decided to take up the challenge of re-creating his Grandmother’s recipe for these peanut butter balls as a surprise treat for him.
It didn’t take long to get my ingredients, ratios and procedure down for them, but there was always something missing with the recipe, even though he never once complained about their quality.
I made these not too long ago, and enlisted the help of my Partner in Crime Jr. (ex’s daughter, and light of this SkinnyBitch’s life for the past 14 or so months). She was more than thrilled to help – I mean c’mon. Peanut butter, chocolate, graham crackers, powdered sugar? She was a kid in a candy store – literally!
So we set out to the recipe, she measured and poured and scooped diligently as I read her the recipe. When it came time to begin the mixing process (little Ms. KitchenAid was being very patient with its new found fan), there was a SLIGHT miscommunication regarding the ratio of mixer speed to mixer capacity with my Little Princess.
A billowing cloud of peanut butter-coated powdered sugar and graham crumbs engulfed the two of us like a confectionary Nagasaki.
Once the sweet dust settled, she looked up at me with those big brown eyes, and the only words I could muster (choking back hysterical laughter – and peanut butter shrapnel) were, “You Goof-Ball!!”
Thus, the missing piece of Grandma’s peanut-butter ball recipe was found. The name, Goof-Balls stuck.
And here is where I will close for the time-being. SkinnyBitch is having a difficult time typing and face-mopping at the same time. This won’t be it for tonight though! I will return to you soon.
Love like crazy and without regret.
Until then ..
XOXO
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