These homemade peanut butter eggs are a copycat recipe that taste even better than the Reese’s eggs you buy at the store!
Delight the peanut butter cup lovers in your life with these decadent and delicious peanut butter Easter eggs. They’re so easy to make that you’ll never go back to store bought. Serve your candy eggs with mini egg cookies or birds nest cookies for a sweet and festive end to your holiday meal.
In my opinion, Easter candy is the BEST candy of the year. You’ve got creme eggs, all those fun types of jelly beans, Peeps, and of course Reese’s eggs. I love Reese’s eggs and decided it was time to try making them at home. I have to say, my homemade peanut butter eggs are even better than Reese’s eggs! They’re not difficult to make and are perfect packaged up for gift giving, class parties and Easter baskets of course.
You can make a platter of Easter treats to serve with these eggs like Oreo balls, rocky road fudge and chocolate covered cherries. Looking for more spring dessert ideas? Don’t miss my collections of 30 Easter Dessert Recipes and 22 Peeps Recipes!
Table of Contents
Peanut Butter Eggs Ingredients
When you make this peanut butter eggs recipe you will want to have the following ingredients:
- Powdered Sugar: The powdered sugar is the binding agent to make that melt-in-your-mouth peanut butter center, and it also adds the perfect amount of sweetness.
- Peanut Butter: It’s important to choose a smooth and creamy peanut butter such as Jif or Skippy for the most authentic flavor. I don’t recommend using the natural style peanut butters as they can separate and make the finished product oily.
- Butter: The butter combines with the peanut butter and powdered sugar to make a rich and creamy filling.
- Chocolate Chips: Choose a high quality chocolate for best results. My favorite chocolate chip brands are Guittard and Ghirardelli.
- Shortening: The shortening thins out the melted chocolate, which makes it easier to coat the eggs evenly when they’re dipped, and it also produces a nice shiny finish when the chocolate sets. If you don’t have shortening, coconut oil will also work.
How to Make Peanut Butter Eggs
To make peanut butter cup eggs, first mix together peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter and water to make a dough in a stand mixer or with an electric mixer. Press the dough into a foil lined pan, then let it chill in the refrigerator until it is firm. Use a cookie cutter to cut egg shapes out of the dough. Freeze the eggs so they can harden before they go into the chocolate. Melt the chocolate with shortening, then dip the eggs in the chocolate. Place the dipped eggs on a parchment paper lined baking sheet or sheet pan to harden. You can add a little drizzle of chocolate on top for decoration. Let the eggs set, then serve and enjoy.
Tips for the Perfect Peanut Butter Eggs
- You want a dough that’s not too crumbly, yet not too sticky. Feel free to add a little more liquid or powdered sugar to get to the right consistency.
- I found an egg shaped cookie cutter online, but many stores sell them this time of the year.
- You can make your eggs as large or as small as you like. I typically use a larger cookie cutter, about 3 inches, but these would be awesome made as mini eggs too!
- I recommend using a fork to dip your eggs in the chocolate, this way the excess chocolate can run off the tines of the fork.
- You can melt your chocolate in a double boiler; however, I find it to be easier to melt chocolate in a microwave.
- If you don’t want to use chocolate chips and shortening, you can use chocolate candy melts or chocolate melting wafers instead.
- Line a sheet pan or baking sheet with parchment paper or waxed paper. This will prevent the chocolate covered eggs from sticking and also makes clean up easier.
Quick Tip
These Reese’s peanut butter cup eggs can be made up to 5 days before you plan to serve them. You can store them covered at room temperature, or if it’s a warm day, put them in the fridge.
Recipe FAQs
Reese’s eggs are a milk chocolate shell filled with a creamy peanut butter mixture. They are only available for a limited period of time each year, typically during the months of February, March and April.
Peanut butter eggs taste different than peanut butter cups because the chocolate to peanut butter ratio is slightly different. There’s also a different textural contrast because the coating on a peanut butter egg is smooth, whereas there are ridges on a peanut butter cup.
According to public opinion surveys as well as data collected from consumer shopping habits, Reese’s peanut butter eggs are the most popular Easter candy.
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Flavor Variations
These peanut butter eggs are delicious as-is, but you can customize some of the ingredients to suit your tastes.
- Chocolate: This recipe will work with semisweet, milk and white chocolate. If you go with white chocolate, be sure to look for chips that contain cocoa butter and not palm oil.
- Peanut Butter: You can substitute in crunchy peanut butter, just avoid the natural varieties with the oil on top.
- Add-Ins: Feel free to stir in 1/4 cup of Rice Krispies, mini chocolate chips, mini Reese’s Pieces or shredded coconut to the peanut butter dough for a different flavor and texture.
- Decorations: You can decorate the tops of your eggs with sprinkles or small candies.
This year surprise your family and friends with these peanut butter eggs, you’re sure to get rave reviews!
More Sweet Treats You’ll Enjoy
Birds Nest Cookies
6 mins
Berry Chantilly Cake
2 hrs 30 mins
Funfetti Cookies
15 mins
Greek Yogurt Cheesecakes
35 mins
Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Peanut Butter Eggs
Ingredients
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 3 cups chocolate chips semi sweet, milk chocolate or white chocolate
- 1 tablespoon shortening
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Place the powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter and 2 tablespoons of water in the bowl of a mixer.
- Beat on low speed until a dough forms. If the dough is too crumbly to hold together, add more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is reached.
- Line an 8″ or 9″ square pan with foil. Coat the foil with cooking spray.
- Press the peanut butter mixture into an even layer in the pan, then chill for 30 minutes.
- Remove the peanut butter mixture from the pan by using the edges of the foil as handles and cut out egg shapes with a cookie cutter.
- Place the eggs on a parchment lined sheet pan and freeze for 30 minutes.
- Add the chocolate chips and shortening to a microwave safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments until chocolate is melted. Stir until smooth.
- Remove the eggs from the freezer and dip them in the chocolate. Tap against the side of the bowl to remove excess chocolate.
- Place the dipped eggs back onto the parchment lined sheet. Repeat until all eggs are coated. Drizzle and remaining chocolate over the top of the eggs using a small spoon or piping bag.
- Let sit until chocolate is firm, then serve. Eggs may be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Notes
- You want a dough that’s not too crumbly, yet not too sticky. Feel free to add a little more liquid or powdered sugar to get to the right consistency.
- I recommend using a fork to dip your eggs in the chocolate, this way the excess chocolate can run off the tines of the fork.
- If you don’t want to use chocolate chips and shortening, you can use chocolate candy melts or chocolate melting wafers instead.
- Line a sheet pan or baking sheet with parchment paper or waxed paper. This will prevent the chocolate covered eggs from sticking and also makes clean up easier.
Super good! Used wowbutter in place of peanut butter due to peanut allergy. They were spot on!
Can you use vegan butter?
I think that should be fine!
Wow, these homemade peanut butter eggs look amazing! I can’t wait to try making them myself. It’s great to have a recipe that’s even better than the store-bought version. Thanks for sharing!
Oh! I love these PB eggs, they are fantastic for Easter! We made a small batch to try out before the festivities and they were delicious!
These little treats are so fun to make!! I’m definitely saving this recipe to make with my kids for Easter coming up!
This is so perfect and right on time for Easter! I love that this peanut butter eggs uses only very few ingredients! Thanks so much for sharing.
Yum Yum Yum! my favorite combination of ingredients. Will be making them this weekend.
What is the shelf life of these eggs?
A week in a sealed container!
Like everything I’ve tried on this blog over the years, it was yummy! Didn’t change a thing. I just wish it was calorie-free lol
How thick should the peanut butter centers be
About 3/4 of an inch!
Must you use a cookie cutter? Can you just shape them into eggs?
Yes that’s fine!
How many eggs does this recipe make?
It makes 12 eggs!
I followed the recipe and I was able to get 10 large eggs and 10 small ones
Can I use coconut oil for the shortening ?
Yes that’s fine!
Do using the oil in the chocolate make it soft like the chocolate on the candy bought in stores.
It’s softer and also thins it out so it’s easier to coat the centers.
Can I use butter instead of shortening?
The shortening is to thin the chocolate so that it’s easier to coat the eggs. Butter won’t work in the same way. You can just omit the shortening, but the coating will be a little thicker and harder.
I used vegetable oil
How much vegetable oil?
I made these last year and they were delicious! The family is requesting them again this year and of course I have time.