If you love peanut butter, you will enjoy this soft peanut butter candy. This homemade candy is reminiscent of old-time penny candy, and it’s incredibly easy to make! You only need 4 simple ingredients, a few minutes, and a bit of effort.
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Are there peanut butter lovers in your house? Here, peanut butter is eaten with a spoon more than it is used in sandwiches. When I saw this old-fashioned recipe card for peanut butter candy, I couldn’t remember anyone in my family ever making it. Our family has many peanut butter fanatics, so I knew this recipe would be a huge hit.
This candy is so easy to make…you have a creamy peanut butter candy in under 10 minutes. Just roll, slice, and wrap in wax paper. If you love old-fashioned recipes, you will want to try my Grandma’s Homemade Bread Pudding recipe. I converted it to gluten-free, and it is so good.
Did your family have a tradition with old-fashioned sweets? Our current tradition (addiction) seems to be these gluten-free peanut butter cinnamon rolls. These rolls aren’t really candy, but they are smothered in peanut butter. Need I say more?
Ingredient Notes and Easy Swaps:
For the full list of ingredients and amounts, please go to the recipe card below.
- Peanut Butter – I recommend creamy peanut butter. Natural peanut butter is too oily to use in this recipe.
- Powdered Sugar – Most powdered sugar is gluten free.
- Heavy Cream – Do not use low-fat versions. To make this recipe dairy-free, use a dairy-free heavy cream, such as So Delicious brand.
Substitutions:
If you are allergic to peanuts or can’t eat nuts, you can still enjoy this homemade nut candy!! You can also use:
- Cashew Butter
- Almond Butter
- Sun Butter (nut-free!)
If you do try this peanut butter candy recipe with natural peanut butter or almond butter, please comment below how it turns out so we can all know. Luckily, everyone LOVES peanut butter in our house, so it is often hard to find a jar of peanut butter with enough left to create a recipe!
If you are a peanut butter fan, try these Gluten-Free Peanut Butter M&M Cookie Bars or these Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Donuts.
How to Make Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Candy (Step-By-Step)
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Add the heavy cream, peanut butter, and powdered sugar to a large
Your dough will be mostly firm, like in this picture.
Use wax paper to roll the candy into a long snake. The recipe said to roll the rod in powdered sugar. I chose not to add extra sugar to this recipe because it is a lot of sugar. This peanut butter candy melts in your mouth and tastes incredible without the extra layer of powdered sugar.
Use a sharp knife to slice the roll into round pieces. Wrap in wax paper! Cut up the wax paper and use it to wrap your candy for safekeeping. This peanut butter candy makes wonderful gifts for teachers, friends, holidays, and work parties!
Frequently Asked Questions:
You can definitely do so, but when mixing these ingredients, do it slowly on a low speed to prevent the powdered sugar from flying all over the place.
No, there is no cooking in this peanut butter candy recipe.
You do not have to chill your peanut butter candy roll before slicing, but it does help make the slices cleaner.
You are going to love the flexibility of this homemade peanut butter candy recipe. You can use any whipped peanut butter.
I don’t use natural peanut butter due to the oils and how they separate easily from the peanut butter.
More Homemade Candy Recipes:
Love This Recipe?
If you made and enjoyed this recipe, I would be incredibly grateful if you could leave a comment below. This will help others know this recipe is delicious. Thank you!
Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Candy
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter Do not use natural peanut butter.
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- extra powdered sugar optional if you want to roll the candy in this.
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
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Instructions
- Combine 1 cup creamy peanut butter, 2 cups powdered sugar, 1/4 cup heavy cream, and 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl.
- Mix the ingredients into a soft dough.
- Place waxed paper on the counter and put half the dough onto the paper.
- Roll out (like playdough!) into a long snake. Repeat with the second half of the dough.
- Wrap in the wax paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes (this is optional but helps.)
- Optional: roll the peanut butter roll in powdered sugar. You can also add tiny chocolate chips as a mix-in when making this recipe!)
- Slice the candy and wrap each piece in a square of wax paper.
Notes
- You can use creamy peanut butter or crunchy. Just note crunchy peanut butter will make your candy more textured. Do not use natural peanut butter because the oil can cause the recipe not to work.
- If you are not able to eat peanuts or nuts due to an allergy, you can substitute Sunbutter the nut-free butter instead.
- This homemade candy makes a great holiday and teacher gifts!
- Store the wrapped candy in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It should keep fresh for up to 3 weeks.
SPECIAL NOTE
Please know that every gluten free flour blend has a different starch to grain ratio. If you use a blend I didn’t test, my rule of thumb is to add more flour if your dough or batter is wet and add more liquid if the dough or batter is too dry!
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
I truly hope you enjoy this recipe. I have been testing and creating gluten-free recipes for over 15 years. Creating gluten-free recipes that do not taste gluten-free is my goal for every recipe. Sometimes I only have to test a new recipe a couple of times, and others it takes multiple times. I do this so you get reliable, delicious results every time!
These look yummy. Do you have to wrap the individually or can I put them all in a container?
Hi Jen, you can put them into a container if you like.
I have two questions:
1) Why is this called 2 Ingredient Peanut Butter Kisses when it has 4 ingredients?
and;
2) Since it contains cream, does the candy need to be refrigerated?
I tried to search on kisses and I have no idea where you saw that. As for the 2 ingredients, it was an error from 5+ years ago on a Pinterest pin, it doesn’t say this anywhere in the recipe. Yes, it should be refrigerated.
Now I need to go to the store to get supplies…lol. This sounds so yummy. Thank you.
I love this recipe. I was a hospice nurse, and a patient taught me. Their was 1 minor difference you may like. They used unscented dental floss to cut the candy. Slide it under the candy, wrap floss around the candy, and pull. The candy slices without any squish. You will have near perfect coins. I use this technique to cut cinnamon rolls too. Great recipe, thank you for reminding me. I’m chilling mine as I write this comment. 🫠
I am so glad you love this simple recipe. I grew up with penny candy. Thank you for the tips for using dental floss to cut them out easier!!
Grew up eating this it’s my all time favorite passing it on to my grandchildren now
I am so glad this candy brings back such wonderful memories :-).
So does everyone use just the 2 ingredients like the title and directions throughout say or do you follow the actual recipe below that has several ingredients not just pb and powdered sugar ?
You must have found my recipe via an OLD pin on Pinterest from back in 2018 because I have since edited the title and all. If you would like these to turn out as everyone raves about…use my listed recipe.
When I was a kid my mother made peanut butter candy a lot for her 8 children and she always rolled it into small balls not a log. I roll it into balls when I make it also .
I am really happy my recipe brings back such beautiful memories. Thank you so much for sharing with me.
I use dental floss(unflavored) to cut candy like this, also good for cutting cinnamon rolls. Makes nice clean cuts
That is a great idea! Thank you so much for the tip, Karen!
Can this recipe be made vegan, a substitute for the cream would be needed.
Hi Cheryl, I have not tested this recipe with any dairy-free cream. If you try it, please come back and let us know how it tastes.
Love peanut butter in all is forms. Can I make big batches of these and just store them at room temperature? Will they last long?
Hi Victoria, I have not tested storing them this way so I am unable to advise you.
Thank you for sharing this peanut butter candy recipe. My family loves it! 😊
I am really glad you all loved it :-).
Do you know how long they can be stored or kept. I know refrigerated would be best but how long outside of the fridge would they last?
Hi Stefanie, I think it depends if you are using a more processed peanut butter or natural. Natural peanut butter doesn’t have the preservatives that processed peanut butter does.
Thank you for this recipe. I had these in kindergarten around 1974-75 and have been looking for them since. Love these candies!
I am so glad you like this recipe and that it brought back such beautiful memories 🙂
REESE’S peanut butter is the ONLY one for me! Personal preference. These look AHMAZING! I make homemade candy every Chrtistmas & am always looking for at least 1 new one each year. Last year it was Oreo Balls. This year…THIS RECIPE!!! What about dipping them in melted milk chocolate, but not wrapping them? You can’t beat peanut butter & chocolate together!
I like how you think Nini!! Chocolate dipped would be amazing!
I bet they would be awesome, my grammy use to make these and roll them in cocoa powder, or maybe it was in chocolate malt it’s been so many years but now I want them again thanks for the idea
I love the idea of cocoa powder being rolled onto these. I will have to try that next 🙂
This looks so good. My grandmother made peanut butter fudge that was fantastic. I was excited to see this peanut butter candy said to be made with “just two ingredients.” I was surprised when I saw the recipe list of four ingredients. This question is sincere, not meant to be fault finding (four ingredients and still super simple is great) however, do you in fact make this with just powdered sugar and peanut butter alone, and the other ingredients optional? thank you!
Hi Sarah, I have made it with just peanut butter and powdered sugar and it is very close to the four ingredients…I think the heavy cream adds to the creaminess of the candy though. I will make the recipe more clear. Thank you so much :-).
The version I grew up with incorporated powdered milk. Oddly irresistible..
Trying this right now, hopefully surprise my mother when she gets home from work!!
I used WowButter, natural powdered sugar and didn’t wrap them. They turned out yummy and I am on my way to my Church Country Fair to sell them in my natural foods shop.
Hi Beth, Wow! I am glad you liked my grandmother’s recipe. I would love if you could snap a picture of your shop with the candy so I can share it. Also, this blog is fairly new. I would love it if you could mention it. I would love to grow this blog 🙂