These small batch chocolate peanut butter truffles are rich, indulgent, and simple. This recipe makes just seven truffles (but can be scaled up) and is great for holiday desserts!
With Valentine's Day (or Galentine's Day) festivities coming up, chocolate is on the brain! Not that chocolate is ever far from my mind when it comes to dessert, but it definitely jumps to the front of the line this time of year.
And while I by no means would ask you to rank your favorite chocolate desserts, I'll put it out there that truffles are up towards the top of my list, along with dark chocolate covered peppermint pretzels. They're rich, they're dense, and in essence they have built-in portion control.
That is, until one truffle turns into two turns into three...
My answer to that (minor) problem are these small batch chocolate peanut butter truffles. This candy recipe features basic ingredients to result in a wholly satisfying sweet treat, but the recipe yields just seven truffles. Small batch desserts for the win!
These truffles are the perfect thing for sharing with your Valentine or your family, without fretting about a ton of leftover sweets. And if you're celebrating with a larger crowd? Well, the ingredients are easy to scale right up.
Recipe ingredients
Truffles taste fancy but they use very simple ingredients. The base is a chocolate ganache, which is just chocolate and cream melted and mixed together (more on the chocolate in a second). Technically that's all you need, but a small bit of unsalted butter and peanut butter just add to the creamy aspect, with chopped salted peanuts bringing crunch.
All these chocolate peanut butter truffles need is a roll in unsweetened cocoa powder for decoration (and to cut down on sticking) and you have yourself a perfectly balanced chocolate and peanut buttery treat.
The ingredients list is pretty straight-forward, but let's talk about the chocolate. Truffles are a rich, not too sweet dessert, so we want to use bittersweet or dark chocolate here. Both of these chocolate varieties are less sweet than semisweet, and often come in bars versus chips. Chocolate chips usually contain some sort of shape-stabilizing ingredient that can interfere with them melting down perfectly smooth, so chopping up a bar of chocolate is the preferred way to go here.
My go-to for these chocolate peanut butter truffles is a bittersweet chocolate with 60% cacao content, though you can use whichever type of bittersweet or dark chocolate you like. Just take note that bittersweet chocolate is not the same thing as baking chocolate. We definitely don't want to use the latter!
Step-by-step instructions
Begin by chopping up the chocolate fairly finely and then placing it in a heat-safe bowl. Next warm up the cream in the microwave for somewhere around 20-25 seconds. You want it to be pretty hot, but not boiling hot. Pour the hot cream in the bowl over the chocolate and let it sit for a few minutes, or until the chocolate is melted or thereabouts.
If the chocolate isn't fully melted, pop the bowl in the microwave for a very short spurt until it's fully melted. Then whisk in the butter and peanut butter until smooth. Lastly stir/whisk in the chopped peanuts and refrigerate for a few hours, or until the mixture has hardened.
After that, all you have to do is scoop the truffle mixture, form it into balls, and roll in unsweetened cocoa powder. A cookie scoop helps to make this process easier, as you'll want to handle the peanut butter truffles as little as you can as the heat from your hands will start to melt the chocolate and it'll become messy.
Either a one-tablespoon or one-and-a-half-tablespoon capacity cookie scoop works well here! This recipe yields about seven of the bigger size and ten of the smaller.
Lastly if you're a big fan of truffles dipped in chocolate, you can definitely coat these that way, but I opted to keep things simple by rolling them in cocoa powder. Up to you - treat yo self, Galentine!
Recipe notes
- These truffles have a deep, dark flavor and aren't overly sweet. If you know you like sweeter chocolate desserts, you can substitute in up to half of the chocolate with semisweet chocolate. If going that route, try and find a semisweet chocolate bar instead of chips as it melts better.
- Chunky peanut butter can be used instead of creamy and added peanuts. We're just a creamy PB house and didn't have chunky to use!
More Easy Dessert Recipes
Ditch the peanuts, swap the cream for Irish cream liqueur, and add espresso powder for another rich and flavored truffle recipe. These chocolate Irish cream truffles are a huge hit around St. Patrick's Day and let's be real - any time of year.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles
Ingredients
- 3 oz finely chopped bittersweet or dark chocolate (about ½ cup) see note
- 3 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
- 2 tablespoon chopped salted peanuts
- Unsweetened cocoa powder for rolling
Instructions
- Chop chocolate into small pieces and add to a heat-safe bowl. Heat the cream in the microwave for 20-25 seconds, or until warmed. Pour hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for 3-4 minutes to heat and melt the chocolate, then whisk it. If the chocolate isn't fully melted at that time, pop the bowl in the microwave for 10-15 second intervals until everything is smooth.
- Whisk the chocolate and cream until fully melted and the mixture is smooth. Add the butter and whisk in until melted (utilizing a short burst in the microwave if needed).
- Whisk in peanut butter until combined and smooth, the stir/whisk in the chopped peanut pieces.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, lightly pressing the plastic wrap down to the surface of the chocolate mixture. Refrigerate for two hours, or until the mixture will be firm enough to hold shape.
- Line a baking sheet or plate with parchment paper. Once the chocolate mixture is chilled and firm, scoop truffles using a cookie scoop or spoon and roll into a ball. You may wish to coat your hands with cocoa powder to cut down on sticking. Place truffles on the parchment-lined sheet.
- Stick the round truffles back in the fridge for at least a half hour to firm up again. Roll in unsweetened cocoa powder prior to serving. Store truffles in an air-tight container in the fridge.
Notes
Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice says
I often forget about truffles when it comes to thinking of my favorite kind of chocolate, but it definitely ranks up there! Love the pb in here, Alyssa! Good thing this is a small batch, otherwise I have NO doubt that I would devour them all!
Annie says
There is no question about it, I HAVE to make these! The sooner the better! Off to the store to get cream!
Alyssa says
Thanks Annie!