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.
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.
How to make peanut butter eggs
To make peanut butter cup eggs, you’ll need peanut butter, powdered sugar and butter. These ingredients get mixed together with a little water to form a dough.
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. The dough gets pressed into a square pan, then is chilled. From there you’re going to want to cut out your eggs! I found an egg shaped cookie cutter on Amazon, 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!!
After you’ve cut out your peanut butter eggs, they need to go into the freezer to firm up before they are coated in chocolate. You can use semisweet chocolate, milk chocolate or white chocolate here, whichever you like best!
The chocolate is melted with a little bit of shortening – I always get questions about why shortening is included. The shortening helps to thin the chocolate out so that you don’t end up with a super thick shell on the outside.
I finish off my eggs with an additional drizzle of chocolate, it looks so pretty that way!
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.
This year surprise your family and friends with these peanut butter eggs, you’re sure to get rave reviews!
More sweet treats you’ll love
- Birds Nest Cookies
- Berry Chantilly Cake
- Funfetti Cookies
- Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries
- Greek Yogurt Cheesecakes
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 can use any size cookie cutter you like. The eggs shown in the photos are made with a 3 inch cutter but smaller mini eggs would also be fun!! Recipe yield depends on the size of your cookie cutter.
- You can use candy melts in place of the chocolate chips if you prefer; simply omit the shortening.
- Recipe adapted from The Recipe Critic.
Prissy says
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
Dee says
How thick should the peanut butter centers be
Sara says
About 3/4 of an inch!
Cathy says
Must you use a cookie cutter? Can you just shape them into eggs?
Sara says
Yes that’s fine!
Ashley says
How many eggs does this recipe make?
Sara says
It makes 12 eggs!
E Pamela Prudente says
Can I use coconut oil for the shortening ?
Sara says
Yes that’s fine!
Loretta says
Do using the oil in the chocolate make it soft like the chocolate on the candy bought in stores.
Sara says
It’s softer and also thins it out so it’s easier to coat the centers.
Jillian says
Can I use butter instead of shortening?
Sara says
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.
ARIANNA says
I used vegetable oil
Phyllis Lovewell says
How much vegetable oil?
Kristy says
I made these last year and they were delicious! The family is requesting them again this year and of course I have time.