Cooking with Kids: Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Puffs Recipe

Long ago, one of the girls found a cute little treat at a school bake sale that involved simply dipping jumbo marshmallows with toothpicks into melted chocolate chips. The concept was cute—but, we decided to simplify the technique a bit and create something more like the chocolate dipped marshmallow Easter eggs that we love in the spring.  We are peanut butter and chocolate fans—and the girls love any dessert loaded with sprinkles so this turned out really well in less than ten minutes of preparation time.

Ingredients for Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Puffs

• 1 10oz. Package of Large Marshmallows--about 35-40 Marshmallows
• 1 ½ c. Milk Chocolate Chips
• ¾ c. Creamy Peanut Butter
• 2 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter  + a little Butter to grease the aluminum foil covered pan

Instructions for Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Puffs

Prepare the desert pan.  Line a 9 inch square baking dish with aluminum foil.  Lightly butter the aluminum foil—making sure to butter both the bottom and the sides of the pan.

Line up the marshmallows.  Place the marshmallows into the pan vertically, forming fairly straight rows so that when the chocolate coating hardens—the puffs can be neatly cut into squares.

Melt the chocolate and peanut butter.  I simply add the chocolate, butter and peanut butter to a medium saucepan and melt the chips over low heat—removing frequently from the heat and stirring constantly.  Some people opt to use the microwave and melt the ingredients until smooth.  Simply choose your usual chocolate melting method, and melt the chocolate, peanut butter and butter--stirring well to fully combine.

Cover the marshmallows and chill.  Pour the chocolate peanut butter mixture evenly over the rows of marshmallows, spreading with the back of a spoon to evenly coat the marshmallows.  Be sure to encourage the chocolate mixture to drizzle down the sides and fill in between the marshmallows.  Sprinkle multi-colored or themed sprinkles over the warm chocolate immediately so that they stick in place.  Chill the dessert completely before serving—at least 3-4 hours.

Serve.  With a sharp knife, carefully cut between the marshmallow rows both vertically and horizontally to remove the individual Chocolate Peanut Butter Marshmallow Puffs.  Our marshmallow rows were a little less than perfect, so it was a little difficult to cut even, picture perfect puffs--but, the girls think they are wonderful.

These marshmallow candy pieces are super rich and taste a bit like a candy bar fudge recipe—without the measuring, boiling and temperamental candy thermometers!  I think we’ll make these for the Holidays instead of one of our usual fudge varieties and decorate with red and green jimmies—or even white snowflakes.  I also think a chocolate mint variety with almond butter would also be a hit.  Enjoy!