These have a peanut butter cup flavor. They are enjoyable to create, and kids love them. It takes a little while, but the result is worthwhile.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 20 mins |
| Servings: | 30 |
| Yield: | 30 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 12 ounces white chocolate, chopped
- 2 tablespoons shortening
- 2 drops blue food coloring
- ½ cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 drops red food coloring
Instructions
- Beat the peanut butter and butter with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the sugar and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll chilled dough into small, eyeball-sized balls and place on 2 baking sheets lined with wax paper. Refrigerate for another 30 minutes.
- Melt the white chocolate and shortening in a microwave-safe glass or ceramic bowl in 30-second intervals, stirring after each melting, for 1 to 3 minutes (depending on your microwave). Do not overheat or chocolate will scorch. Dip each eyeball into the white chocolate and transfer to the waxed paper until the chocolate has set. You can chill them in the refrigerator.
- Stir a few drops of blue food coloring into the remaining melted white chocolate. Make a round “iris” on the top of the cooled eyeball and press a mini chocolate chip in the center for a “pupil.” For an extra spooky bloodshot eyeballs take a toothpick dipped in red food coloring and make squiggly lines on the eye.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 227 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 21 g |
| Cholesterol | 11 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 92 mg |
| Sugars | 20 g |
| Fat | 15 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I make this recipe every year for Halloween. It’s now tradition and if I didn’t make them there would be a lot of disappointed people! I dip a tooth pick in red food color to create eyeball veins. The little extra work it definitely worth the effect!
Very rich and peanut buttery. I work at an optometry office, so these were a hit today! A little time consuming in making, but definitely worth the final product.
These were a great addition to the Halloween party me and my fiance threw this weekend. Time consuming but fun to make. Thanks for the recipe!
maybe this should be re-written with all of the other adivce in the reviews (that I should have read). As published I think this is only worth two stars because: 1) the shortening taste terrible in the chocolate 2) the peanut butter balls are too difficult to work with and form because they are too soft 3) the chocolate only covered about half of the balls. Again, after reading the other reviews that removed the shortening, froze the peanut butter, added graham crackers, etc… I can see 5 stars, but really that is a completely different recipe and should be posted!
Everyone loved these!
OMGosh!!! These were the best!!! SO much fun. I can say, that these will be repeat offenders every year now for Halloween. My kids laughed so hard and found them way cool. And got told, I was the best! Shining the apple on my shoulder 😉 I did skip direction #3 because I had already purchased Wilton Spooky Eyes Candy and made a great stand-out impression on the treat and with my family. TY so much…..great recipe.
The peanut butter balls were mush. Mellting chocolate in the microwave did not work out. I did not add shortening to chocolate, as chocolatiers tell you not to mix anything in chocolate when you melt it.
What a mess! I took the advice about adding rice crispies, and that was a great suggestion. It was cloyingly sweet! So I doubled the recipe WITHOUT adding more sugar, and that helped a lot. Trying to coat the eyeballs with white chocolate, even after the eyeballs were refrigerated, was an enormous challenge and a mess. But that was nothing compared to trying to put “irises” on the eyes with blue chocolate. I ended up finishing about 14 eyeballs. It doesn’t matter if they taste okay, they are a holy mess NOT WORTH THE TIME!!! And I was persistent!
I made these for a Halloween party, and they were a BIG hit. We have several friends who have trouble with gluten, so I used crushed Rice Chex instead of Rice Crispies, which have malt in them. Time consuming? Yes. Worth the trouble? Also yes. Someone suggested leaving a “tail” of white chocolate, as if the eyeball had been plucked out, but I used red, so it resembled veins.
tried the this recipe used crunchy peanut butter and m&m for eyes and piping gel for the veins.i do recommend frezzing them before dipping
I LOVED this recipe! I pieced together quite a few helpful tips from other reviewers and I thank them for the success of these, I can see how making them as written would be very frustrating! Firstly, I recommend making the “dough”, refrigerating it over night and rolling into balls the next day. They form easily this way and you don’t have to worry about them being too greasy or mushy. Poke toothpicks in each ball and stick in the freezer for at least a half an hour. I didn’t use any shortening in my white choc mixture and it turned out fine, although I found I ran out of white choc with about 5 eyeballs left, so you may need a bit more. Dips into the white choc while holding the tooth pick, allow to dry a few seconds before pushing the ball off of the end. You may leave a fingerprint or a blemish, but you can cover it up when you create the pupil. I used decorating icing for the pupils as well as the veins. They looked great, tasted exactly like a Reeses peanut butter cup. Will definitely make these again! =) Thank you for posting!
Just started making this recipe with my son. We’ve got the filling done so far and already can see it’s going to go over well. (we had a small sample) Very easy and few ingredients. Perfect for me being practically kitchen illiterate. Greatfull for the recipe! Going to make ghosts tho instead of eyeballs…
Excellent. Guests were in a sugar coma after these treats!
I made these for my fiance’s Halloween work poutluck. These were so easy to make and form into eyeballs. They weren’t sticky at all and I recommend putting them in the freezer before working with them. The only issue I had was working with the white chocolate- I will not blame the recipe for that! I overheated it and it wasn’t liquidy-velvety smooth. I was, however, able to save it and the final product looked impressive and tasted delicious. My fiance brought home an empty container- that speaks for itself!
YAMMY candy..My 10 year old and I had so much fun making them.THANK YOU
Labor intensive, but very tasty and fun. Made them for my 22 year old daughter’s Halloween party with her college friends. Added 2 cups crisp rice cereal to the peanut butter mixture. Everyone said that made them perfect. I found that making tem smaller, using approximately 1 tablespoon of mix, worked better for dunking int he white chocolate. Oh yeah, I used vanilla almond bark and liked the way it got harder to hold the eyeballs together. Thanks for a great recipe!
Easy and fun to make- though a bit messy. The effect was cool and they tasted great! definitely a hit at the halloween party!
It was the hit of the party. The kids loved the way it looked and tasted. It wasn’t difficult to make. I did use white candy coating instead of white chocolate the recipe called for.
These were fun to make. Presentation is great. Got lots of compliments. The eyeball tastes like a Reese’s with the peanut butter and white chocolate.
I thought this recipe was good….however I have a few recommendations (some are similar to what others have said). 1.) I added almost an entire 3/4c. of graham cracker crumbs to give it some more texture–this will also help the peanut butter to stick together and not be overly gloopy. 2.) The eyes are VERY rich so keep them small. 3.) Use gel for the iris of the eye and black gel for the pupil if you want them to be more realistic. 4.) You’ll need double the amount of white chocolate, no way does 12oz cover this. 5.) I kept stirring in 1tsp. vegetable oil into the white chocolate until I got it to be nice and runny. HINT: if you want the chocolate to be thin on the outside (which I recommend because they are quite sweet) the runnier you can get the white chocolate, the better! 5.) I just used red gel for the veins and scribbled it on…it wasn’t perfect but looked fine. 6.) Use a strong toothpick to dip the peanut butter balls into the chocolate. OVERALL: Good recipe. Would use again, but make sure you leave enough time as they definitely are time consuming. Great for Halloween though!
These are great. Author warns they are time-consuming and they are, but worth it.