Bullseye? Buckeye!

Every year, my friend Ruthie throw an ice cream sundae birthday party, where she provides the ice cream and the guests compete to win the best topping award. This year, however, was Ruthie's last New York party, because she is moving to Ohio-- the Buckeye State. For those of you who are interested, the buckeye is a nut, but it is also a delicious chocolate peanut butter candy. Ruthie, in honor of her impending move, held two contests this year, one for the best topping and one for the best interpretation of a buckeye. Naturally, being a Baking Sister and generally ridiculously competitive about things that don't matter, I planned to not only enter, but also to win.

And I am happy to report, dear readers, that I did just that by inventing a delicious chocolate peanut butter pretzel caramel concoction. The perfect decadent combination of salty and sweet. Just a warning-- when you add the caramel to the chocolate, it gets very sticky and does not want to attach to the peanut butter balls. So patience is a virtue. Dip, wait, and enjoy!

Peanut butter pretzel balls:
1 cup of butter, softened (not melted)
1 1/2 cups of smooth peanut butter
6 cups confectioners sugar
3/4 pound of pretzels, broken into small pieces but not ground

Blend the butter, sugar and peanut butter in a stand mixer slowly, until well blended. Add the pretzels and mix slowly until the mixture is just blended. Roll up the mixture into 1 inch balls. Stick a toothpick into each ball and put them in the freezer until complete hard.

Melt 1 bag of chocolate chips in a double boiler. Mix it with 4 oz caramel sauce. Keeping the mixture on low heat, dip the balls in by the toothpick until about half of the ball is coated. Repeat until all of the peanut butter balls have been dipped in chocolate. Remove the toothpicks and place in the fridge to cool, until you are ready to eat them.