Buckeyes

Why This Recipe Works

What's a buckeye, you ask? You'd know if you lived in Ohio, where it's the official state tree, so named because its nuts resemble a deer's eyes. And you'd know if you went to the Ohio State University, where Brutus Buckeye is the beloved sports mascot. But in the test kitchen, the buckeye that matters is the chocolate-dipped peanut butter candy that resembles this nut. Buckeyes are made by rolling a mixture of peanut butter, confectioners' sugar, and butter into balls and dipping each ball in melted chocolate. While chocolate and peanut butter is always a winning combination, the recipes we tested were bland and too sweet. To fix these problems, we adjusted the ingredient proportions, cutting back on sugar and butter and nearly doubling the peanut butter. While the flavor of these buckeyes was improved, they were now too soft to dip. To remedy this, we mixed a small amount of melted white chocolate chips into our base; once they solidified, they added structure. For the chocolate coating, we melted semisweet chocolate chips instead of chopped bar chocolate. The chips contain emulsifiers, so they harden into a sturdy coating.