Robot Has No Heart

Xavier Shay blogs here

A robot that does not have a heart

Peanut Butter Balls

These things rock. I make them for all party occasions. This year batches were given as Christmas gifts. Everybody else loves them also. Full credit for this recipe goes to a lovely woman named Alex, a friend’s mum who always caters awesome parties. First, the original recipe, my notes after.

Alex’s Peanut Butter Balls

Makes 100

Ingredients

  • 1 cup crunchy peanut butter
  • 50g butter, softened
  • 1 cup icing-sugar
  • 2 cups Coco Pops
  • 375g Milk Choc Melts, melted
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Method

  1. Beat peanut butter, butter and icing sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until combined. Stir in Coco Pops and mix well
  2. Roll teaspoons of mixture into balls and place on baking paper-lined trays. Refrigerate until firm.
  3. Combine Choc Melts and oil in a medium bowl. Using two forks, dip one ball at a time into chocolate mixture until coated; drain away excess chocolate. Return balls to trays; Refrigerate until set.

First of all, I just can’t get 100 out of this recipe. Record is 56. I think my teaspoon is too big. I don’t have an electric mixer, so I put the whole lot into a large bowl and just give it a good old fashioned mix. I have broken a wooden spoon doing this, so soften the butter a little more than normal to assist. In making the last batch I accidentally melted the butter, which made mixing really easy, but a little more difficult to spoon balls.

Do Choc Melts stay melted if you take them off heat? I have no idea – I melted them by putting them in a metal bowl on top of a saucepan of simmering water, and then dipped the balls straight into that.

For bonus Christmas Cheer, I tried painting mini bits of holly on each with cake decoration material. I think it’s cool, but I don’t think anyone else will recognize them for what they are.

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