Buckeyes Recipe - Lauren's Latest (2024)

FAQs

Should you keep buckeyes in the fridge? ›

Buckeyes are fine to sit out at room temperature on holiday cookie plates for up to 24 hours, though if you're keeping them around for longer than that, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator where they'll stay fresh for up to 2 weeks. Buckeyes also freeze super well.

They're called buckeyes because they look like the nuts that grow on Ohio buckeye trees. This recipe for buckeye candy is so good that I double it whenever I make it.

Here's what's in buckeye balls: The peanut butter balls are made with confectioners' sugar, creamy peanut butter, unsalted butter, and vanilla extract. The coating comes together quickly with just semi-sweet chocolate chips and shortening.

The buckeye candy originated in Ohio (a.k.a. the Buckeye State). According to legend, sometime in the 1960s, Ohio resident Gail Tabor invented buckeyes while trying to dip peanut butter balls in chocolate.

Removing the shell and roasting the nut neutralizes its harmful tannic acid content and makes for a protein-packed snack. If not prepared properly though, buckeye nuts are toxic to humans, causing symptoms including weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, paralysis, and death.

Poisonous Plant: All parts of the plant (leaves, bark, fruit) are highly toxic if ingested – because of the glycoside aesculin, the saponin aescin, and possibly alkaloids. Symptoms are muscle weakness and paralysis, dilated pupils, vomiting, diarrhea, depression, paralysis, and stupor.

The Buckeye's Place in History. As well as the belief in the good fortune of its storied seed, the buckeye has been held to cure rheumatism and other, more minor ailments. Pioneering farm families also made soap from the kernels of buckeye seeds, and many a child's cradle was carved from the wood of this tree.

There are many different methods for processing and cooking buckeye seeds for food, depending upon the tribe. The seeds have medicinal properties and were cut into pieces, mixed with water, and made into suppositories for hemorrhoids by the Costanoan and Kawaiisu.

Ohio is known as the Buckeye State. But what exactly is a buckeye? The buckeye tree (aesculus glabra) is native to North America. In late summer and early fall, the trees bear fruit that contain a large nut.

What are buckeyes called in England? ›

Conkers are also known regionally as cheesers, a "cheeser" being a conker with one or more flat sides, which comes about due to it sharing its pod with other conkers (twins or triplets). Also Cheggers was used in Lancaster, England in the 1920s.

Native American Uses: Native groups did find the buckeye nut to be of some use as a food supply despite its toxicity, primarily when acorn harvests were sparse.

Although it doesn't need to be refrigerated, cold temperatures ensure it lasts longer. If you prefer not to refrigerate your peanut butter, aim to keep it in a cool, dark place, such as the pantry. It's also important to always close the jar of peanut butter tightly.

Make sure your buckeyes stay fresh for as long as possible! The buckeyes should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator to keep them nice and fresh. Stored in this way, they will keep for about 1 month (although good luck keeping them that long without eating them all, ha!).

SHORTENING added to the chocolate is the big secret ingredient for buckeyes. This helps stabilize the chocolate so that it dips nicely, and helps prevent the chocolate from weeping and sweating once it's hardened. Traditionally, people added paraffin wax to the chocolate to achieve this.

It is said you can rub your favorite buckeye along the side of your nose to keep it oiled. While I haven't tried that, you can apply lacquer to a dried buckeye to keep the gloss look. Buckeye nuts come in a round or oblong spiny capsule and can commonly contain one, two, three, four or maybe even five buckeyes!