Homemade Peanut Butter Eggs

Looking to fill your Easter basket but can’t find your favorite treats or don’t want to go to the store? Instead, try making some of your favorites at home – like these homemade peanut butter eggs, modeled after my all time favorite Easter basket stuffer!

I grew up with a mixture of religious and secular traditions for Easter and I love every last one of them. I love an Easter sunrise service and the joyous sense of rebirth. I love the spring blooming all over the place. I love a good Easter brunch. And I love coloring eggs, hiding plastic eggs, and stuffing Easter baskets full of goodies.

This year, Easter’s a little different than normal. We may not be coloring eggs, or if we are, just a few since they’re such a commodity. We won’t be going out to service or brunch. I might see little bits of spring while I’m out running, but that’s it. And the store hasn’t had much in the way of Easter goodies. I’m particularly missing one of my favorite basket stuffers, peanut butter eggs {made by the folks who rhyme with “pieces”}.

But lucky for me, my grocery store still had a couple of bags of semi sweet chocolate chips and we have peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar {although that’s getting really hard to find with all the quarantine baking going on!}, and there’s this wonderful thing called the Internet, so it was pretty easy to find a bunch of different ways to make a knock off version!

Talk about things to be grateful for – being quarantined in the time of Internet. Life would have been a little different if we were locked down without the collective knowledge of the world just a Google search away.

The chocolate coating here is the same one I use for chocolate-covered strawberries {which are a great wine night party snack} and the filling is a combination from a bunch of different sites. I had to take it and tweak it so it wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet or salty, but still gave you all the mixture of peanut butter and chocolate flavors you crave.

What you end up getting is a little more homespun, a little less perfectly formed, and according to my husband, a lot tastier. He said it tasted like something he’d pick up from a high end confectioner in Old Town. I have a feeling we’ll be making these more often – and I’ll need to, if we want them to look the part as well!

[lt_recipe name=”Homemade Peanut Butter Eggs” summary=”Looking to fill your Easter basket but can’t find your favorite treats? Instead, try making these knock-offs of our favorite peanut butter eggs!” servings=”16-20″ total_time=”2H” print=”yes” image=”https://homefrontcooking.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Peanut-Butter-Eggs-0493-1024×683.jpg” ingredients=”1 cup peanut butter;10 tbsp butter, room temperature;2 cups powdered sugar;2 tbsp water;2 tsp vanilla extract;2 cups semisweet chocolate chips” ]Add the peanut butter and 6 tbsp butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Cream the butter and peanut butter together until smooth and creamy. Add the vanilla and mix again.;Add the powdered sugar to the peanut butter 1/2 cup at a time and mix until smooth and creamy again. You’ll want to scrape the bowl regularly with a spatula to make sure the sugar is combined.;Add the water if your mixture is dry. If it has the consistency you want, omit the water. You don’t want it too squishy.;Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.;Roll the peanut butter mix into 16-20 balls, depending on how big you want them. I used my tablespoon cookie scoop.;Flatten each of the balls slightly and then shape roughly into eggs. Transfer to the parchment paper on the baking sheet. Place the sheet in the fridge to chill for 20-30 minutes.;Fill a saucepan with 1-2 inches of water. Fit a Pyrex or other heatproof bowl to the top. Bring the water to a boil and place the chocolate chips and remaining 4 tbsp butter into the Pyrex bowl. Melt the chocolate chips and butter together, stirring frequently. When melted and combine, remove the bowl from the heat and let cool slightly.;Skewer a peanut butter egg with a fork {I use fondue forks} and dip into the chocolate, ensuring it gets coated. Transfer to the baking sheet, and use a knife or a spatula to scrape away the excess.;If you’re going to add sprinkles or decorations, make sure you do it before the chocolate sets. It will cool rapidly against the cold peanut butter.;Repeat for all the remaining eggs. Chill the eggs 1 hour or more to allow the chocolate to firm up completely. I leave mine in the fridge overnight.[/lt_recipe]

So there you go. A pretty and tasty treat, perfect for your Easter basket, and maybe even better than the real thing!

Happy Good Friday and Happy Easter!