Homemade Peanut Butter Eggs (Reese’s Copycat Recipe!)
You don't have to wait for Reese's peanut butter eggs to hit store shelves each Easter – make your own! With 6 or 7 ingredients and a cookie cutter, you'll have homemade creamy chocolate peanut butter eggs – no specialty silicone molds, no baking. Can easily be made with other shapes for different holidays!
So… we all agree that Reese's taste better when they're in the shape of eggs, pumpkins, and trees, yes? I'm personally partial to the Reese's hearts. There's something about the ratio of peanut butter filling to chocolate that is just superior in those shapes versus the original cups.
The original Reese's are made with milk chocolate, and I personally prefer darker chocolate. I know they've made them, but I never manage to find them anywhere! So I decided that it would be worth the effort to just make my own.
And no one else is saying it, so I'm just gonna say it – these are basically just buckeye balls in a different shape. Doesn't matter – I love peanut butter coated in chocolate in every form.
You only need 6 (or 7) ingredients for homemade peanut butter eggs
And none of the ingredients are anything crazy, so you don't need a trip to the specialty grocery store for any of this.
There's a caveat there of “6 or 7” because it depends on what kind of chocolate you decide to use. If you're going to use baking bars, you'll want to add oil to the melting process – that makes it a 7 ingredient recipe. But if you're using chocolate melting wafers, you won't need to add oil – and it's only 6 ingredients :)
- Unsalted butter: You're going to start with room temperature butter, and make sure you're using unsalted! If all you have is salted, omit the additional salt I call for in the ingredients.
- Creamy peanut butter: What did you think I was gonna say, salsa? ;) The peanut butter is the star of the show here!
- Powdered sugar: I tend to lean toward the lower side of the scale when it comes to how much powdered sugar I add to my peanut butter eggs because I don't like things overly sweet. I like to use 1 cup, but you can add up to 1 1/2 cups to taste.
- Pure vanilla extract: It adds a little mellow, complementary flavor.
- Salt: To keep things from getting too sweet!
- Chocolate: You can use dark chocolate, semisweet chocolate, milk chocolate or white chocolate – whatever floats your boat. But make sure you're using baking bars or melting wafers, and not chocolate chips. I explain why below!
- Oil: If you're using baking bars, you'll need to add a little oil to smooth out your melted chocolate.
What kind of peanut butter should you use?
You want to use a creamy peanut butter, but not a natural kind that requires you to stir it to mix in the oils. They're simply too oily for the purpose of this recipe.
I like to use Justin's Classic Peanut Butter Spread. If you're feeling nutty (pun 100% intended), you could use a crunchy peanut butter!
Do I need a silicone mold?
You don't! If you already have one, feel free to utilize it though. You'll just want to follow a slightly different process than what is outlined below in the recipe card.
- Melt your chocolate and use a brush to coat the inside of each mold and then it set.
- Instead of freezing the peanut butter dough, you'll instead press it into the chocolate-coated mold cups
- Then brush the top (or I guess technically it's the bottom!) of each mold cup with more melted chocolate.
- Stick it in the freezer, and you're done!
How to shape peanut butter eggs
I like to treat the peanut butter dough like sugar cookie dough, and cut out the egg shapes with a simple egg-shaped cookie cutter! Easy peasy.
If you need to, transfer your egg cutouts to another parchment lined sheet pan while you re-press and freeze any of the remnant peanut butter dough to use up the rest of the dough. You could also just shape the leftover dough into small egg shapes with your hands!
If you don't have a cookie cutter, you can also shape them by hand – roll about 2 tablespoons of dough into a ball, then flatten it out a bit and lightly press one end into a point. If the dough gets too warm between your hands, stick it back in the freezer to firm back up.
What kind of chocolate should you use for peanut butter eggs?
Regardless of the method you choose to melt your chocolate, you want to use high quality chocolate – and not chocolate chips.
Chocolate chips don't melt well because they contain less cocoa butter than baking bars and have additional stabilizers – they've been created with the intention of retaining their shape.
You can either baking bars that you've chopped up for the purpose of melting them down, or you can use chocolate melting wafers. My go-tos are the Ghirardelli 60% cacao baking bars or Ghirardelli melting wafers (both the dark chocolate and white chocolate).
How to melt chocolate
Melting chocolate in the microwave
In a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate and oil (or just wafers) and heat in 30 second increments, stirring after each, until melted and smooth. Use something with a decent amount of depth to it to make dipping easier, such as a liquid measuring cup. Let the chocolate sit at room temperature for a few minutes to cool a little before dipping your peanut butter eggs.
Melting chocolate with double boiler
In a double boiler (with a small amount of water in the saucepan that doesn't touch the bottom of the top pan), bring water to a simmer. Add chocolate and oil (or just wafers), and stir constantly until chocolate has melted. Remove from heat for a few minutes to cool a little before dipping your peanut butter eggs.
How to melt white chocolate
White chocolate is more temperamental than other chocolates, and can seize up more easily if something goes awry. Keep a close eye on your white chocolate, stir constantly, and make sure to remove from heat as soon as you see all the chocolate is almost completely melted.
Give it a few stirs off heat and the rest will meld together nicely without beginning to get grainy. Remove from heat to cool a bit.
Decorating peanut butter eggs
If you plan to add sprinkles or other decor to the tops of your eggs, make sure you do it immediately after you've dipped each egg in the melted chocolate. The chocolate will set up and harden pretty quickly, so it's a brief window of opportunity to add that special somethin'.
If you have leftover melted chocolate when you're done dipping all the eggs, re-heat it a little if needed and then transfer it to a pastry bag or plastic storage bag with a small corner cut off.
Pipe some stripes on top of your eggs once the chocolate coating has set to add some visual interest, and/or to cover any imperfections. Which I have plenty of, so… yeah. I absolutely do this.
Please don't stress about decorating your eggs!
I am the first person to admit that candy dipping and decorating is not my forte. I mean, I can make them look nice, but if I'm being completely honest I just don't care enough.
It's all going to taste the same in my stomach! I do put in more effort when I'm making things as gifts, but for myself? Psh, I just want it in my face.
I hope this encourages you not to stress out about how your eggs look, and just enjoy the finished product! :)
How to store peanut butter eggs
I like to keep my peanut butter eggs stored between layers of parchment paper in a freezer safe container in the freezer. It only takes a couple minutes outside of the freezer to be ready to eat, and they can be stored in the freezer to up to 3 months.
You could also keep them stored the same way, but in the fridge instead for up to 2 weeks.
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Homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs (Chocolate or White Chocolate Peanut Butter Eggs)
Ingredients
- ยผ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- โ cup peanut butter, no stir, creamy
- 1 cup confectionersโ sugar (powdered sugar), up to 1 1/2 cups, if desired
- ยฝ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- 10 ounces dark chocolate or white chocolate, chopped baking bars (not chocolate chips)*
- 1/2-1 teaspoon coconut oil, vegetable oil, or shortening
Instructions
Make the peanut butter filling
- Line a half sheet or jelly roll pan with parchment paper, and set aside.
- In a large bowl using a hand or stand mixer, beat butter on high speed for 2 minutes until smooth and creamy.1/4 cup (56 ยพ g) unsalted butter
- Add peanut butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt and beat on low medium speed until well combined.2/3 cup (172 g) peanut butter1 cup (120 g) confectionersโ sugar (powdered sugar)1/2 teaspoon (ยฝ teaspoon) pure vanilla extractpinch salt
- Press into the bottom of your prepared sheet pan, at about a 1/2" thickness. Place sheet pan in the freezer for at least 15 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the freezer, and use an egg-shaped cookie cutter to cut out as many "eggs" as you can. If you need to, transfer your egg cutouts to another parchment lined sheet pan while you re-press and freeze any of the remnant peanut butter dough to use up the rest of the dough. You could also just shape the leftover dough into small egg shapes with your hands!Place the sheet pan of egg cutouts back in the freezer for at least 30 minutes, but I recommend 1 hour.
Melting chocolate in the microwave
- In a microwave safe bowl, combine chocolate and oil and heat in 30 second increments, stirring after each, until melted and smooth. Use something with a decent amount of depth to it to make dipping easier, such as a liquid measuring cup. Let the chocolate sit at room temperature for a few minutes to cool a little before dipping your peanut butter eggs.10 ounces (283 ยฝ g) dark chocolate or white chocolate1/2-1 teaspoon (ยฝ teaspoon) coconut oil
Melting chocolate with double boiler
- In a double boiler (with a small amount of water in the saucepan that doesn't touch the bottom of the top pan), bring water to a simmer. Add chocolate and oil, and stir constantly until chocolate has melted. Remove from heat for a few minutes to cool a little before dipping your peanut butter eggs.10 ounces (283 ยฝ g) dark chocolate or white chocolate1/2-1 teaspoon (ยฝ teaspoon) coconut oil
Coat the peanut butter eggs in chocolate
- Using a candy dipper or a fork, submerge each peanut butter egg into the melted chocolate until completely coated, then lift out and gently tap the fork against the edge of the bowl to remove excess dripping chocolate. Transfer the coated eggs back to the parchment paper to set.If you find the peanut butter eggs getting too soft to work with, pop them back in the freezer for a bit.
- If you're planning to decorate them with sprinkles, you'll want to do that just after you've dipped them in the chocolate as they will set up pretty quickly!
- Place the sheet of coated eggs back in freezer for at least 30 minutes to set completely. Serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition Facts
Nutrition Disclaimer
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