Peanut Butter Balls for Halloween

Looking for Halloween treats to make at home? Put these peanut butter balls with rice krispies at the top of your list. This easy, no-bake recipe makes the best Halloween peanut butter candy. You and your kids can have fun decorating them in cute or spooky fashion. Package several rice krispie peanut butter balls in cellophane for perfect Halloween treat bags for your guests .

Did you know that over all Reese’s cups are the #1 Halloween candy in the nation? Every state in the nation has their own favorite, but Halloween peanut butter candy reigns supreme.

Consequently, when you’re looking for easy Halloween treats to make, these rice krispie peanut butter balls should quickly jump to the top of your list.

You’ll love these sweet salty snacks as they mix two fabulous things: peanut butter balls with rice krispies.

You’ll love sinking your teeth into the sweet and salty candy and getting that unexpected snap, crackle and pop from the rice cereal. The melt-in-your-mouth candy coating makes them even better.

What better time to make these peanut butter candies than Halloween, when you can go all out on decorating. This is a great project to do with your kids and they’ll love the sweet reward at the end.

Why you’ll love Halloween peanut butter balls

• It’s an easy, no-bake recipe.
• One recipe makes about 70 peanut butter rice krispie balls.
• Kids can help mix, roll and decorate, so it’s fun project for everyone.
• Each rice krispie peanut butter ball has only 100 calories and 11 grams of carbs. (Not guilt-free, but I can totally justify 1 or 2.)
• These Halloween peanut butter candies are great for filling cellophane party bags.

Ingredients:

• Peanut Butter (chunky recommended)
• Butter
• Kosher Salt
• Vanilla
• Confectioners Sugar
• Rice Krispie Cereal
• Assorted Candy Melting Wafers (for coating)
• Jimmies, Sprinkles, Candy Eyeballs, etc.

How to make the peanut butter candies

1. Use a hand mixer to blend softened butter with peanut butter.
2. Add kosher salt and vanilla extract and beat into the mixture.
3. Add powdered sugar a little at a time, until it’s blended through.
4. Add the rice krispies cereal to the peanut butter ball mixture and fold or mix in with a rubber spatula and/or with your clean hands until evenly blended.
5. Portion out the peanut butter rice krispies mixture and roll into balls.
6. Decorate as desired.

Pro-Tip: Use a mini cookie scoop (about two teaspoons) to portion the homemade Halloween treats. This will ensure that the crispy peanut butter balls are equally sized. Then roll each scoop into a ball with your clean hands.

Use a variety of candy melts to decorate peanut butter Halloween candies.

I used the white chocolate for ghosts and mummies, the orange for pumpkins and the green for monsters. I also made a few that just had a variety of sprinkles.

How to make Halloween treats:

• Use white chocolate melting wafers or other colored melting wafers for the candy coating.
• Melt the wafers according to the package directions. (Mine called for microwaving at 50% power in 30 second increments until smooth.)
• Dip or coat the rice krispie peanut butter balls in the colored candy coatings and transfer to a parchment lined sheet pan.
• Decorate the halloween peanut butter candy with sprinkles, jimmies, etc. while the candy coating is still wet, so that the embellishments will stick.

Tips for working with candy melts:

I hadn’t worked with craft candy melts before and I made some assumptions, which turned out to be wrong.

I assumed that the candy melts would be liquid-y enough to drizzle over the peanut butter rice krispie balls.

They weren’t. I had to roll them in the colored coatings and the finish wasn’t as smooth as I’d hoped. Not a huge deal, but be aware of that.

The Ghirardelli white chocolate coating was more like a ganache and therefore, easier to work with.

If you’re just dusting the Halloween peanut butter candies with sprinkles and jimmies, I’d advise coating about 5-10 candies and decorate in small batches as the candy coating layer hardens fairly quickly.

For individual faces, eyes, etc, you’ll want to decorate in layers.

• Coat the peanut butter balls with candy coating and let dry before adding faces, etc.
• For fine work, like adding mummy stripes, eyeballs or a line for a mouth, put melted candy coating in a plastic sandwich bag and snip a very small corner off with a pair of scissors. Use this to pipe on the mummy’s bandages, or to glue candy eyeballs to the peanut butter rice krispie balls.

Candy melts will harden as they sit, so you may have to reheat the candy melts periodically in the microwave.

How to make pumpkins:

1. Coat the rice krispie peanut butter balls in orange candy melts.
2. Set them on a parchment lined sheet pan.
3. Use the side of a toothpick to make vertical lines all around the candy to resemble the lines of a pumpkin. Let the shell harden.
4. Pipe green candy melts to form the stem and leaves. Let the shell harden.

Making candy ghosts

1. Pipe a puddle of white chocolate on a piece of parchment paper to act as the “skirt or ghostly trail”
2. Coat the Halloween peanut butter balls in white chocolate coating and transfer to the center of the puddle to harden.
3. Place eyes on the ghost and let harden.

How to make mummies

• Dip rice krispie peanut butter balls in white chocolate and transfer to the parchment to harden.
• Pipe stripes going in various directions over the candies like a mummy.
• Affix eyes on top so they’re looking up at you.
• Let dry.

Making monsters out of rice krispie peanut butter balls

1. Coat the balls in green candy melts and let dry on the parchment paper.
2. Spread a thin layer of green candy melt on top of the ball and sprinkle with purple sprinkles or black jimmies for “hair”. Let dry.
3. Pipe on the mouth in a zig zag direction and add black jimmies or other colored sprinkles. Let dry.
4. Pipe a dot of green candy melt onto the back of the candy eyes and affix to the monster’s face. Let dry.

This recipe makes a lot of peanut butter and rice krispie balls, which is perfect for Halloween parties , but way too much candy for my husband and I to eat between the two of us.

So I did the only thing I could think of. I sent them to work with Scott to share with his co-workers. They devoured them.

What the tasters said:

The sweet shell of candy coating is the perfect foil for the soft peanut butter and rice krispie filling. I can’t resist these cute Halloween treats. I’m betting you’ll love them too.

More Halloween treats to make at home:

• Graveyard Halloween Dip
• Spooky Halloween Deviled Eggs
• The Easy Lychee Martini Recipe That’s Great for Halloween
• Swamp Gasses – A Green Halloween Punch
• Easy Apple Tart – A Halloween Recipe
• Cheese Olive Balls – Halloween Party Appetizers
• Drunken Cherry Martini
• Sweet n’ Salty Harvest Snack Mix
• Bloody Champagne Bellini

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