How To Make Peanut Butter Balls
Peanut butter balls were a staple in our school lunchrooms. Word got around fast on the day the lunch ladies were making them and we all looked forward to the single serving we got on our trays come noon meal. Single serving for everyone but my brother.
My brother, who never once passed up a chance to be unusually cruel to me, managed to singlehandedly wrap every one of the hair netted lunch ladies around his little finger. While we all surfaced with our single peanut butter ball, Bill waltzed to his table with at least three. Alright, so maybe he wasn’t always unusually cruel. He did let me be a backup singer when he was singing Buddy Holly, but that wasn’t my point here.
This is a great snack for children and grown ups alike. They are kept in ziploc bags in the freezer and when we manage to have any (they are eaten so fast!), I often see my husband or son coming back from the freezer with a handful at a time. Full of all sorts of goodness, its one snack that will not only tide your family over until you can finish up supper, but one you can feel good about letting them have.
Note about honey: If you have children under the age of two, substitute corn syrup as raw honey poses health risks.
I can go into why but don’t I go off on enough tangents as it is?
I make a LOT of these at a time so I need a dishpan.
Feel free to half this recipe!
Peanut Butter Balls
(makes about a hundred)
2 C honey or corn syrup
3 C creamy peanut butter
5 C dry milk powder
6 C quick oats
Mix all together with hand mixer. Form into balls with hands and freeze on waxed paper lined cookie sheets until hardened. Store in freezer in ziploc bags.
Print This Recipe
If my brother shows up, only let him have one. ~grins~
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jul 26 2008. Filed under Dessert, Freezes Well, Holiday Favorites!.
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Christy, you have such a wonderful site. Your step by step instructions are clear and easy to follow. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you! I’m so glad you came to visit me and I really appreciate you taking the time to leave feedback, especially such kind feedback!
If you have any special requests or questions, please let me know!
~Christy
When I saw the title Peanut Butter balls I immedietly thought of the ones I make at Christmas but they are dipped in chocolate. Those things are deadly!!!! OH MY Christy these are healthy and I just think my kids might eat these. Next week i am planning a day for me and Mackenzie and Carson to have a peanut butter ball day. Yipee we have all the ingredients. Ü
I see my Texas blogging buddy came to pay you a visit. Hi Teresa!!!!!!! Christy she has the best food over there you need to go check it out.
Ooooh Tina! You mean buckeyes! Thats what we call them at least! They are great!! OMG TINA, I have a recipe for a buckeye pie that’ll make you slap your mama!
You ready for a shock, sit down now, this may be too much….
Katy (a.k.a. Princess PickyPants) has been EATING peanut butter balls!! KATY!! ~Gasps~ I was shocked.
I have blood sugar issues and have to really watch that I get enough protein in with very little sugar (no, I don’t really eat the desserts I put up here, I have one spoon or a taste and thats it!! I had ONE bite of that peanut butter cake and ONE bite of chocolate cobbler….)ANYWAY, my point was, when we left the house to go out of town, I had some peanut butter balls in a bag and they made a GREAT protein rich breakfast for me and DH. Very filling, too. Can we take a moment to look back in appreciation of the magnitude of that run on sentence I just put out there?
Anyway, they are really so very good and awfully good for you. I am quite stunned when I think of how much my kids love them, considering the nutritional value they have!
~Waves and grins at Teresa along with Tina and winks at Tina, feeling certain her blog was what sent Teresa here~:0)
Love this recipe. Have you tried it with sugar? Does it have the same consistency and taste? It seems like the honey would help hold it all together. Im going to make some of these today.
Hey Mrs. Darling! I am so glad you stopped by and hope you’ll come back often! I have just darted over to your blogs and they are wonderful! I hope to spend more time there soon!
You are absolutely right, the honey is needed to hold it all together. Even with the honey and peanut butter, the mixture is still very dry and as I get towards the bottom of my dishpan when I am making them, I have a more difficult time forming the last few.
Corn syrup can be used in place of honey though. I imagine pancake syrup could be used with great success as well!
Christy
Well Im going to whip some up. My husband thinks it sounds awful with the oatmeal uncooked but from your description it must not be a deterent!
You know, sometimes you just have to lie to men for their own good.
Take my husband for example. He doesn’t like gravy. He won’t eat gravy. He swears he HATES gravy. So, I don’t use gravy on our roast. I don’t put gravy on beef tips when I serve them over rice. I don’t even use gravy when I make the Salisbury steaks from Mommy’s Kitchen(in my blog links). What do I do instead?
I use brown sauce .
hehe
That’s not raw oatmeal, honey! it’s flaked nuts!
That’s not raw oatmeal, honey, I toasted it beforehand!
Just make something up. God love them, they have their uses but discerning culinary tastes seldom make the list!
LOL!! Just had to say that my Dh swears he HATES spaghetti, so one night I made ‘noodles with tomato sauce’ and he ate it up! So I don’t tell him what is in anything I cook till after he had eaten it, fewer problems that way.LOLOLOL
LOL!!! That’s ALL the men in my house (and I am the only woman!) If you don’t tell them what’s in it or what it is, they’ll generally eat it and love it. And if it’s something recognizable that they swear they hate (i.e., mushrooms), well, that’s why God made food processors!
Christy! I made these last night and they are SOOOO good! I loved them. I must say that I did 1/2 the recipe… and still ended up w/ 60 balls.. I must make them smaller than yours! But they are very good.. we all love them. I think I need to invest in a dish pan to mix in though.. I had to use my HUGE spaghetti pot! LOL Thanks again!
Terri
Terri: YAY! I’m glad you liked them! I LOVE having them on hand for a quick protein rich snack to keep me going when ye olde blood sugar takes a nosedive!
I probably do make mine kind of big, I do that with everything. I am about to post a tutorial of my favorite cookie in the whole wide world…which I make almost the size of your head! hehe!
I don’t do small batch cooking
Whenever I cook, you’d swear an army was coming to dinner.
Thank you for letting me know how they turned out!!!!
Christy
I haven’t thought of these in years. Only we used (in Texas) molasses instead of honey and I seem to remember rolling them in coco powder at the very end. I can’t wait to make these for my kids. Thanks for the memories.
Also the brown sauce comment made me laugh. My husband is from NY and doesn’t always like what Texans call things so I am constantly changing names.
(Sorry I deleted the other post so for editing reasons)
I love peanut butter balls as much as the next gal, but just a friendly reminder…while honey may not be suitable for young children, is corn syrup really suitable for anyone? It is very unhealthy and there are a number of better substitutes (ie agave syrup or brown rice syrup). Also, check your peanut butter label for hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. These cause artery blockage.
Messeis Wow, molasses sounds GREAT for these! Oh how funny about your husband!!! Bless their hearts, they’ve no idea how often we pull the wool over their eyes! Molasses and cocoa…thats stuck in my head now. Sounds heavenly
HillaryGood points, Hillary. In moderation, corn syrup is fine. In fact, I rarely ever use it except for peanut butter balls. I can’t see being able to pass off brown rice syrup or agave syrup on my kids (I don’t think I’d be too keen on trying them myself to be honest!) but those are great suggestions for anyone who is concerned about corn syrup or wants to go more natural with their diet.
I’m all over the hydrogenated oils! Again, for those who are concerned though, great points. I’m sure these can easily be made with a natural peanut butter.
A lot of budgets don’t allow for it, though.
In the immortal words of our own Paula Deen “I’m a cook, not a doctor”. Hehe!
Smuckers ( I know you don’t buy what they’re selling) makes a very reasonable priced natural peanut butter. I buy it so there is not sugar/corn syrup/ ickiness in my peanut butter. Low carber here can you tell.
I’ve made these with splenda, but I’ve never used the oat meal. But I have added cream cheese. I know sounds odd but peanut butter mixed with cream cheese is AWSOME! They are indeed a great portable protein snack/meal.
Thanks for posting, it reminded me I haven’t made any in a long time.
i3xZGG comment3 ,
jdOYQ9 comment5 ,
In California ours were covered in light coating of powdered sugar.
Additionally they used rice crispies instead of outs- gives them a totally different crunch…..
amazing how everybody has wonderful memories of this one cafeteria food huh?
oh @nicole, you are AWESOME! i was all over this, but i knew my kids woudln’t eat it because of the oats. this is exactly what I needed!
These look GREAT. And I love “brown sauce” and “flaked nuts”! You’re hilarious!
what about the powder milk, can we subsitute anything for that?
thanks, I just love your site.
Hey Lenna!
I would experiment with more oats and a little confectioner’s sugar if you wanted to stay away from the powdered milk.
Let me know how it turns out! thanks!
Christy
Remember that it is the powdered milk that really pumps up the nutritional content of these treats…
When my kids were young I would add powdered milk to many things. If recipe called for a cup of milk I would use that but also add powdered milk to double up on the protein and calcium.
Way back in 1971 when my first son was born I learned to make these from someone in La Leche League. We didn’t put the oats in there though, just P-Nut Butter, honey and powdered milk. We’d shape them in tiny little squares for toddlers and sometimes put a little raisen on top. I’ll have to try with the oats. BTW if you eat Muesli cereal (love it!) you eat raw rolled oats. Thanks Christy!
Sounds like a great recipe for my hubby. He adores peanut butter, so I’m thinking this will be his work snack next week! Thanks much for the timely Twitter link
These look like they would be perfect for our Wednesday night children’s group! Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
Oooh – and I have to say: that dish in the top picture is absolutely gorgeous! I love it.
Hey Amanda! thank you!
That is a milk glass pattern by Anchor Hocking called “old colony”. I have a compote bowl and a few little plates that are in the same pattern and its a favorite of mine as well. That was a little candy dish but I didn’t get it with the lid (one of these days..).
I also have a GORGEOUS cake platter that is huge in that pattern but alas, it has not come out from it’s hiding place since the move. It is somewhere with my Davy Crockett and Strawberry Shortcake milk glass mugs
This is the recipe that brought me to your sight…I had these in elementary school, my grandmother was a cook there. Instead of oats, they were made with crushed graham crackers and were put into sheet pans and cut into squares. I asked my grandmother, for years, for the recipe and she would always say, ” don’t have one, just a little of this and a little of that” When she, unexpectedly, passed away, this is the recipe I wanted more than anything. I had a total meltdown and cried for days, when I realized I had let the opportunity pass. After alot of searching, yours came the closest and I have made them many times since. Thanks a million!!!!
I was just wondering…you think you could throw all of these ingregients into a food processor and pulse it several times to get it mixed quickly? Love my processor and like to use it when I can. Love your recipes!
What is it about peanut butter and cafeterias? Our grade school used to make “peanut butter treats” and I dearly wish I had the recipe for them! They were pressed in a pan, but it was peanut butter and something mixed with it on the bottom and then there was a chocolate layer on top. Sometimes they put chopped peanuts on top and sometimes not, but they were delicious! A lot of schools nowadays have banned my dear friend peanut butter (including telling kids they can’t bring their own peanut butter sandwich from home).
My grandma makes these, but she rolls them in cornflakes! So good!
[...] Peanut Butter Balls – These are a powerhouse of nutrition, and I like to substitute honey for the corn syrup. They are filling and full of protein, handy because they are kept in the freezer. Katy and Brady both love them. [...]
ok, I have a question, which may or may not be silly. When you put these in the lunch box, do you add a freezer pack/cold pack to keep them cold? or is room temp OK?
Hey Diane! no sillly questions here! I store them in the freezer but they are just fine at room temp. When I send them in lunches I get them out of the freezer and put them in a little baggie or container. I usually put an ice pack in the lunchbox to keep things cool in general but you don’t have to do anything special for these.
Hope this helps!
Gratefully,
Christy
Instead of using oatmeal I makde/make a smaller batched recipe with toasted wheat germm buying raw from the store and toasting in oven per their directions, Our kids loved them and I can eat the whole batch but unfortunately, they do add the weight; and the scale knows. (hehehe) They’re like peanuts —you can’t eat just one.
As many times as I’ve searched this site, I don’t know how I over looked this recipe.
I commute almost an hour each way to and from work. I am always in need of a snack before dinner. I do believe I’ve found a snack I can now feel good about eating.
I just made these and they’re in the freezer, I cut the recipe in third b/c there’s only three of us but as I was “sampling” (licking my fingers after rolling them out) I realize I probably only needed to cut the recipe in half because they’re so good! I think I’m going to try to drizzle some chocolate over some and those can be Mommy snacks. =)
I am a fan of any recipe that says “makes about a hundred.” Love that. : )
For years, I have wondered how to make these! I remember trading items back and forth with friends just to get one more of them! Thank you for this recipe!
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[...] dessert was courtesy of last week’s notebook at The Southern Plate. I halved the recipe just to see if my kids would love these. The results [...]