Peanut Butter Sea Salt Truffles
As much as I love holiday cookies and confections, I’m just not much of a baker. I’m impatient and imprecise, two things that are not beneficial for a cook who wants to excel in the world of baked goods. Luckily for me, there are a whole lot of treats out there that look and taste fancy, but don’t even require pre-heating an oven.
Peanut butter balls were always a favorite of mine as a kid, and these no-bake truffles are a fancy version, thanks to the addition of one of my all-time favorite dessert ingredients, fleur de sel. It’s an amazing compliment to almost any sweet flavor, plus it adds a satisfying crunch. Combine this sophisticated ingredient with the no-brainer combo of chocolate and peanut butter, and you have a guaranteed winner for your next holiday party! Not to mention that the rainbow nonpareils I added are just so festive and cute. Yeah yeah, I’m one of those people who thinks rainbow sprinkles make everything infinitely better. I can’t help myself.
Peanut Butter Sea Salt Truffles
1tbsp butter, softened
3tbsp creamy peanut butter
2oz cream cheese, softened
1/3c white sugar
½c powdered sugar
1c flour
1/8c milk (this is mostly to keep the consistency moist enough, you can use whole, 2%, or nonfat and it won’t make much difference.)
10oz (½ package) chocolate Almond Bark (find it in the baking aisle)
½c fleur de sel/coarse sea salt, for sprinkling
your favorite sprinkles, also for… sprinkling
Mix together the butter, peanut butter, and cream cheese. Cream in both of the sugars. (At this point it would be pretty delicious by itself, but try to resist digging straight into the bowl!) Add the milk, then stir in the flour until everything is evenly combined. It should be a pretty stiff, sugar cookie dough-like consistency.
Form the dough into about 1” balls. I used a tablespoon to scoop and shape mine, and it worked pretty well. Place all your truffle balls onto a plate or tray lined in parchment paper, and let them set in the freezer for about an hour.
Melt down your Almond Bark. Follow the instructions on the package; I prefer the traditional way, melting it on low heat on the stovetop. It only takes about 5 minutes or so. Pull your peanut butter balls out of the freezer and dip them one at a time into the melted chocolate. I found that the best way to effectively do this was to gently drop them in, roll them around with a fork, then scoop them out and let the excess chocolate drip through the tines back into the pan. Too much melted chocolate on one ball makes a mess!
Deposit each truffle back onto the parchment paper after you dip, and immediately sprinkle a pinch of sea salt and sprinkles on top. Almond bark sets really quickly, so you want to make sure to have your toppings right on hand!
Keep the truffles in a Tupperware or other similar safe storage container, and keep them in the fridge until they’re ready to be devoured… and they definitely will get devoured.
