52 in 52 #16 - Buckeye Bites

Sugar and peanut butter held together by a pretzel and dipped in chocolate.  Oh it sounds awful!  How could anyone make such a gross recipe?  Totally kidding... this recipe, honestly, had to have been invented by a woman either PMS-ing or pregnant. 

These are nothing short of amazing.  The creamy peanut butter and sugar and the awesome hard candy shell really work together to make these irresistible.  I have made them several different times and have yet to find anyone, besides my toddlers, who hate them.  We are lucky because our toddlers are not into these - more for us!  The creamy, peanut-buttery, pretzel-y, chocolate-y goodness is something that should be shared with others but with a secret stash for yourself to eat after the kids go to bed! 

Buckeye Bites
Prep time: 10 mins
Freeze time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 tbsp. softened unsalted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
 pretzels
chocolate melts

Instructions: 
Line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil.  Cream together butter and peanut butter.  I have used a stand mixer and it seems to incorporate things easier, quicker and you don't feel like you need to stop and have a rest for your arm halfway through.  Mix in sugars.  Dough will be very thick and very sticky.  At this point, I refrigerate the dough for at least 10 minutes to make it significantly less sticky.  Roll the dough into balls and top a pretzel with each ball.  (We do balls about the size of 2 marbles, but you can do more if you would like your bites to be thicker, smaller if you would like them to be thinner.)  When you find that the dough is too sticky to handle, simply put it back in the refrigerator for a few minutes.  Top each ball with a second pretzel with the sides lined up to the bottom pretzel.  Once all of your dough is balled up and in a 'pretzel sandwich', place those pretzel sandwiches in the freezer for at least 20 minutes, if not longer.  Melt the chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler.  Dip half of each pretzel sandwich in the chocolate and place back on your pan.  Once all pretzels are dipped, place in the fridge for 15 minutes. 

Consume with caution - these are dangerously good!

52 in 52 # 7 - Reece's Peanut Butter Trifle

Let me start off by saying two things:

1. this is definitely in the running for being the dessert that we bring to the Titan meet in April - close your ears and eyes if you are going.
2. I didn't eat any of this while making it or after it was done.  Well maybe one small bite of just the pudding... which was probably 50 calories alone.

Last year was our first year at the Titan camp out.  My husband started posting on this forum for Nissan Titans and Armadas right after we got our Armada and realized that they have a rather large local group.  They do an annual meet in Belton, TX to camp for the weekend.  We loved it so much we definitely decided to go back this year.  They have a Saturday night potluck with a dessert contest.  Last year, I brought this cookie, Oreo, brownie awesomeness (recipe to come soon) and didn't win.  This year it is on!  Last year the winner was a 'cold' dessert which I think won because it was so hot outside, so we decided to go with this. 

I wanted to make the recipe this weekend to test it out because I have been burned enough by bad recipes off the internet.  I mean, the basis of this recipe is peanut butter pudding, brownies, and Reece's Peanut Butter cups - how bad could it be?  Grace was at our house and so I made it to send home for her grandparents and her to share during the week. 

Reece's Peanut Butter Trifle - post from Pinterest here 

9×13 pan of brownies, cut into 1 inch pieces
5.1 oz box instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups milk
½ cup creamy peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
8 oz container thawed whipped topping (Cool Whip), divided
20 peanut butter cups, crumbled (buy in a 10-pack. Not the bite-sized)
6-8 peanut butter cups to garnish.

 

Combine pudding and milk. Beat for 2 minutes. Add peanut butter and vanilla, beat until smooth. Gently fold in 2 cups cool whip.
Layer in trifle dish ½ the brownies, ½ the crumbled peanut butter cups, ½ the pudding mixture. Repeat. Top with cool whip and peanut butter cups. (Or shaved chocolate curls, as I did.) Chill until serving.

This recipe is awesome.  Grace said it needs more brownies for the amount of pudding, so we will probably 1.5x or double the amount of brownies for the meet. 

Here's to hoping that we will win this year!!

-Sara