Enter this recipe. Buckeyes. What’s a buckeye you ask? This is a buckeye.

It’s a nut from the Buckeye tree, most frequently spoken of in the buckeye state, Ohio. But what is the buckeye that I speak of? Oh. It is chocolate. And peanut butter. And addictive. And they look like the buckeye from the tree. See?

Now, I had a hard time dipping the peanut butter filling in the chocolate because my filling ended up a little dry. I’m going to blame this on very dry peanut butter, so you shouldn’t have this problem. But that’s why you see those holes in the top of each buckeye. But you know what? No one cared. They were all devoured in two days. Christmas candidate? You bet’cha.

Buckeyes
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Yield: 36 to 42 tablespoon-sized candies

1/4 cup (2 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups peanut butter (smooth, but you can use chunky if you are looking for more texture)
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (from about 14 graham crackers)
Salt (optional, see note up top)
3 cups confectioners’ (powdered) sugar
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks or 5 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
12 ounces dark chocolate (60 to 72%), coarsely chopped

Make the filling: In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter together until combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs and beat for 10 seconds. Add the sugar and butter, and mix on the lowest speed until it stops floating off everywhere, then increase the speed until the ingredients are combined. Scrape down the whole bowl well, then mix again. The mixture will be quite sturdy and a little dry — perfect for shaping. Set it aside while you prepare the coating.

Make the coating: Melt the chocolate either over a double boiler, stirring until it is completely smooth or in a microwave in 30 then 10 second increments, stirring before you start it again until it is completely smooth. Let it cool to tepid (about 100 degrees, though I’d go a little cooler next time for a thicker coating; I had a few ounces of chocolate leftover) while you shape the peanut butter centers. [Alternately, you can temper the chocolate (fairly simply instructions here) for a perfect showy finish.]

Assemble the candies: Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silpat. Scoop out slightly more than one tablespoon’s worth of filling and use your hands to form it into a ball. Place the ball on the prepared sheet and repeat the process until all of the candies have been shaped. They can sit close to each other but make sure they are not touching.

Using a fork or large skewer, dip each ball into the chocolate and roll it about so that almost the entire candy is coating, leaving a small circle uncoated. Play around with a few practice pieces; I found it easiest to stick the skewer in the side, angle the bowl I was using towards it and make sure it became submerged as I rolled the candy around. But don’t fuss too much; even the “ugly” ones won’t go to waste.

Chill the buckeyes until they are set, about 30 minutes.

Do ahead: Buckeyes will keep in the fridge for at least a week.

I also don’t know that I have ever really made the original rice crispy treats before. Ridiculous, right? I always preferred making things all the way from scratch, even as a kid. What 10 year old makes cakes from scratch? Me. Even for bake sales. Well, these things are dang delicious. I mean really. The butter is melted in a pan until all the milk solids are browned and takes on this delicious nutty characteristic and then that sea salt. Ooooo. So freaking amazing. These play more towards the adult palette with the salt and browned butter but I’m sure no kiddo would refuse them. They are exponentially better than what you get in a box.

So the next step on these? I almost want to try making these using homemade marshmallows. Is that too much?

Recipe for Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats

Recipe for Coffee Toffee

So after making all of this toffee, I decided this would be a great holiday sweet treat for our neighbors. I saw these pyramid gifts boxes (you can download the template and instructions here) and I thought they would be perfect for wrapping up a few pieces of candy and heading over to the neighbors.

Super easy to make and perfect for small sized gifts. I was kinda lazy so I didn’t decorate the card stock I used, but I was thinking the white is reminiscent of snow. Right?

I’m pretty sure I’ll be making this toffee and these little gift boxes many, many more times!