Halloween Cinderella Pumpkin Peanut Butter Balls
My family absolutely loves peanut butter balls which I make each Christmas. When Krista invited me to join in her Halloween recipe hop, I knew that I wanted to take one of our traditional favorites, and recreate it with a Halloween twist. Thus, Halloween Cinderella pumpkin peanut butter balls were born. I admit that the vision I had for these was much prettier than the actuality which is why I am calling this post “a rough guide to creating” them. Let me just say that melting candy is as temperamental as a teenager and sometimes challenging to work with. However, I have complete faith that your execution of these might be better than mine so I wanted to share my idea anyhow…. plus, these are super tasty, and in my family that’s way more important than the aesthetics any day. Without further explanation of how they don’t look quite as I had anticipated, let’s get right to it and show you these, shall we?! Oh, and please note that these are pumpkin shaped and do NOT have pumpkin in them, lest you thought I combined peanut butter and pumpkin. Eeew. No thanks. Some combinations are better off never being tested. (I am an Amazon associate and earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made through my links. I also use other affiliate links. Thank you for your support!)
Ingredients & Materials Needed
- Creamy peanut butter
- butter
- confectioner’s sugar
- melting candy in pink, orange, and green (order for store pick up way cheaper from Michael’s here)
- tiny twist pretzels
- green candy leaves (or order for store pick up at Michaels here
- double boiler
- plastic bag with small hole in corner or heat resistant piping bags (Wish I had used these!)
- parchment paper
Instructions
NOTE: There’s a more detailed recipe card below, but I wanted to add a lot of photos of the process so you could see each step along the way.
- Create the peanut butter filling. Mix 1 cup of peanut butter with 6 Tbs. of room temperature butter until smooth and creamy. Then add in 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar, mixing until well blended. Roll into 1″ balls. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.
- Prepare your pretzels by breaking them into little pieces to create curved pumpkin stems.
- Melt your pumpkin color candy in a double boiler. (The package has microwave directions as well, but I much prefer the double boiler as I think it stays meltier longer, especially when you keep it sitting over the hot water after you shut off the burner). I used 1/2 bag of orange first and went through the following steps to create several orange pumpkins. After I had used up most of the orange melted candy, I added 1/2 bag of pink melting candy without washing the double boiler out so that my pink would have a little orange tone as well which I wanted for my pumpkins.
As you can see, I don’t have a double boiler so I use a glass bowl over a pot filled with water and Harry Potter spatula, because why not. Once the candy is melted, remove it from the heat. I find it does much better that way, just letting it sit over the water as I mentioned before. Otherwise, it tends to get really sticky and clumpy and finicky and FRUSTRATING. - Using a spoon, roll your peanut butter balls in the chocolate until they are fully covered. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using a metal skewer or a toothpick, smooth out the melted candy and create pumpkin ribs. (I looked it up and that’s actually what they’re called.) While the candy is still melty, press a stem into its top.
You also want to add a leaf while the candy is still melty. We did our pink pumpkins that way, but these orange ones, we added by placing a dot of melted green candy on the back of the leaf and then adhering that to the pumpkin. We found placing it on while the pumpkin shell is still melty is much easier.
- Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to an hour, until the candy shell is hard.
- When your pumpkin shells are hard and cool enough, melt 1/4 bag of green candy. Using a silicone piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner cut like I used, pipe little curly vines onto your pumpkins.
Wilder picked out one pumpkin he wanted in particular, so he requested a W vine on his which you can see below.
- Finally, place them in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, and then they are ready to serve!
Obviously, these are far from perfect as I had mentioned in my introduction, but you get the idea.
I actually shared this photo in my instagram stories on Sunday when I finished them, and I got lots of positive feedback, so perhaps they are better than I thought. We are our own worst critics, aren’t we? 
If you make them, I would love to see, as I know they will probably look at least as mediocre as mine. 😉
Now, for the simple recipe card:
Cinderella Pumpkin Peanut Butter Balls
Equipment
- double boiler
- parchment paper
- heat resistant piping bag or baggie with corner cut to create small hole
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 6 Tbsp butter room temperature
- 2 cups confectioner's sugar
- melting candy green, pink, orange
- tiny twist pretzels broken into little stem like pieces
- candy leaves
Instructions
- Mix together peanut butter and butter until creamy.
- Add confectioner's sugar and mix in completely.
- Roll peanut butter mixture into one inch balls, cover, and refrigerate for an hour.
- Melt candy for your pumpkin exterior over double boiler. Once melted, remove from heat but stir occasionally to keep it rather liquid.
- Using a spoon, roll your peanut butter balls in melted candy and place on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- While candy is still wet and malleable, use a toothpick or skewer to smooth and draw pumpkin ribs. Place pretzel stem on top, and add a candy leaf.
- Refrigerate for 30 minutes or so, until candy is hardened.
- Melt green candy, and place it in piping bag. Pipe out little curly vines on each pumpkin.
- Place back in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, and then they will be ready to serve.
Now that you have checked out my fun Halloween treats, here are so many more to go visit! Just because Halloween parties won’t be happening this year, it doesn’t mean you can’t create a fun party like atmosphere for your family. My kids were so excited to see these pumpkin peanut butter balls, and I know your family will appreciate it as well. Enjoy!
And today I’ve joined some of my talented blogging friends who are also sharing their fun Halloween Recipe ideas with you! Just click on the links below the images to be taken directly to their posts.
Worms & Dirt Halloween Cupcakes with Printable Gravestone Markers at The Happy Housie
Cinderella Pumpkin Peanut Butter Balls at Cassie Bustamante
Black Cat Skeleton Cookies at Modern Glam
Ghost Sugar Cookies with 3 Minute Icing at Tatertots and Jello
Reese’s Pieces Cookies at Finding Silver Pennies
Spooky Eye Pies at Paint Me Pink
Chocolate Fudge Halloween Spider and Pumpkin Treats at Zevy Joy
Spooky Halloween Scream Raspberry Pie at A Pretty Life
Candy Corn Veggie Pizza at Clean & Scentsible
Halloween Monster Marshmallow Pops at Nick + Alicia
Kid Friendly Halloween Cheesecake Treats at She Gave it a Go
Oreo Cookie Spiders at This is Our Bliss
Spooky Halloween Snack Mix at The Handmade Home
Pink Candy Apples at Life is a Party
How to Decorate a Store Bought Cake for Halloween at My Sweet Savannah
Halloween Mini Pumpkin Tarts at Jennifer Maune
If you liked what you saw today, don’t forget to pin and save it for later!
