If you love peanut butter, you will love this old-fashioned peanut butter candy. All you need is a few simple ingredients, a few minutes, and a little muscle :-).
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.
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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. It almost didn't make sense because I thought the love of peanut butter was hereditary in our family :-).
Did your family have a tradition with old-fashioned sweets? Our current tradition (addiction) seems to be these gluten free peanut butter cinnamon rolls. They aren't really a candy, but they are smothered in peanut butter. Need I say more?
What kind of peanut butter is best for making candy?
You are going to love the flexibility of this homemade peanut butter candy recipe. You can use any type of peanut butter (or nut butter!) The obvious hero of this candy is the peanut butter. I used creamy peanut butter from Bees Knees, but you can use any creamy peanut butter.
Feel free to use natural peanut butter (just make sure to really stir the oil into the peanut butter in the jar so your candy doesn't turn out oily!)
Substitutions:
If are allergic to peanuts or you 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 :-).
What else can you make with peanut butter?
Lucky for us, everyone LOVES peanut butter in our house...so much so that it is often hard to find a jar of peanut butter with enough left to create a recipe with it!
Here are some more gluten free peanut butter recipes to try:
- Gluten Free Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies
- Gluten Free Peanut Butter M&M Cookie Bars
- Gluten Free No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie
Instructions:
Add the two ingredients, peanut butter, and powdered sugar, to a large mixing bowl.
Can I use an electric mixer or standing mixer?
You definitely can but...when you mix these ingredients, mix it slowly on a low speed so the powdered sugar doesn't fly all over the place!
Do you have to cook the peanut butter to make this candy?
This is going to be the easiest candy recipe to make. You do not have to heat or cook the peanut butter for this recipe.
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."
Do you have to chill the candy before slicing?
You do not have to chill your peanut butter candy roll before slicing, but it does help make the slices cleaner.
Use a sharp knife to slice the roll into round pieces. Wrap in the 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!
More Delicious Homemade Candy Recipes:
- Frozen Nut Butter Chocolate Cups
- Homemade White Chocolate Fudge
- Easy Toffee From Scratch
- Creamy Chocolate Truffles
Tools:
- A great mixing bowl that won't slide around. This peanut butter candy batter requires some muscle to mix, so rubber bottomed mixing bowls makes it so much easier.
- Wax paper for wrapping the candy.
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📖 Recipe
Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Candy
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar for candy
- powdered sugar optional if you want to roll the candy in this.
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.
- 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 20 minutes (this is optional).
- 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.
- 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 great holiday and teacher gifts!
Nutrition
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Stefanie
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?
Sandi Gaertner
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.
Phredd242
Thank you for this recipe. I had these in kindergarten around 1974-75 and have been looking for them since. Love these candies!
Sandi Gaertner
I am so glad you like this recipe and that it brought back such beautiful memories 🙂
Nini
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!
Sandi Gaertner
I like how you think Nini!! Chocolate dipped would be amazing!
christina gaffney
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
Sandi Gaertner
I love the idea of cocoa powder being rolled onto these. I will have to try that next 🙂
Sarah
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!
Sandi Gaertner
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 :-).
Bintu | Recipes From A Pantry
Such a tasty looking candy! We love peanut butter in my house so these would be great to make - but they wouldn't last very long, haha!
Sandi Gaertner
LOL, it never lasts long here either 🙂