O! Christmas Candy! My house smells like chocolate…and peanut butter…and coconut…and sugar and and… Christmas!
I grew up with my mom making Coconut Bon Bons (which we called Bon Bons) every Christmas. My mom still makes them and it’s one of the candies I make that my friends start asking about in mid-November.
Peanut Butter Bon Bons are a more recent family favorite. My hubby calls them Peanut Butter Cups on Steroids. It’s a fairly apt description of spherical pb and chocolate goodness!
Coconut Bon Bon Filling:
- 2 pounds (or 7 1/2 cups) of powdered confectioner’s sugar
- 3 cups coconut
- 14 oz. sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 2 cups of chopped pecans
Chocolate Coating:
12 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 pound of food grade paraffin (optional – but the chocolate will look nicer and hold together better if you use it)
Mix all ingredients thoroughly. The mixture should be firm and hold together. If not, add a little more powdered sugar.
Using a cookie dough scoop, scoop out balls. Round them with your hands and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for about an hour.
Melt the chocolate chips and paraffin in a double boiler over low heat. Using a toothpick or skewer, dip each of the coconut balls into the chocolate and place back on the parchment paper. Let stand to room temperature and store in an airtight container (unless you eat them all first!).
PB Bon Bons Filling:
- 2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 3 3/4 cup powdered confectioner’s sugar
Chocolate Coating:
- 6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/8 pound of food grade paraffin
- (if you make Coconut Bon Bons, too, you’ll have plenty of chocolate coating left for these, too)
Mix peanut butter, butter and sugar. It will look crumbly, but it’ll hold together.
Roll into balls place on parchment paper. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Melt the chocolate chips and paraffin in a double boiler over low heat. Using a toothpick or skewer, dip each of the coconut balls into the chocolate and place back on the parchment paper. Let stand to room temperature and store in an airtight container.
Look for more holiday recipes later in the month!
Add your Sewhooked-related photos to my flickr group and you might be featured in a future post.
Sewhooked 
My mom’s been looking for a peanut butter ball recipe!
I linked her to it, and she’d like to know where you can get parafin. Is it something we need to get at AC Moore in the candy making supplies, or something the grocery store will have?
You can get it anywhere you find canning supplies. It’s also called “Gulf Wax.” I get mine at the local grocery store.
If she can’t find it, it’s okay to leave it out. They just look nicer with it in. 🙂
Jennifer
I’m not crazy for coconut, but they are not that bad.
Thank you.
Ana
Everyone likes different things, so I don’t take it personally when someone doesn’t like something I’ve made. 🙂
I love the taste of the coconut ones! They are, however, nearly impossible to make pretty… for me anyways. (: Perhaps I’m doing something wrong, but they’re too sticky to roll into good balls- they stick and pull when you try to set them down. Any suggestions?
If they’re too sticky, you can add more powdered sugar until you have a good stiff dough. They should be sticky, but not so much that you can’t work with them.
Oh, wow! The bon bon recipe is exactly the one I’ve used since childhood! My mom made them and we’d never found the recipe anywhere before! Sometimes we would divide the dough in half and use a few drop of red food color in one, and green in the other. At Christmas it’s a pretty surprise when you take the first bite. I haven’t made these in awhile…Hmmmmm!!! Thanks, Jennifer! Good memories!
That is so fun, Julia! I’ve never known anyone besides my mom that made them. They’re definitely one of our family’s favorites!
My sweet daughter gave these to me in her Christmas cookie platter, wow they are so good.
She made the coconut ones. They were so good I hid them away from the rest of the family aand ate them all myself. When I needed a special treat I would have one. Now I have the recipe. Thank you!!!
I made the coconut bon bons for my brother-in-law’s birthday over the weekend. He loves coconut!!! These were very good, but too sweet -most people said these are awfully sweet. I was wondering if there is a way to adapt this recipe (using less sugar -but the same amounts of the other ingredients -or some other way) so that it doesn’t ruin the taste of the delicious bon bons -but reduce the sweetness some? What about leaving out the sweetened condensed milk (maybe use unsweetened canned milk?). AND I haven’t tried the peanut butter bon bons yet. I LOVE peanut butter. Are they as sweet as the coconut ones? Just wondered what you think of a way to reduce the sweetness. All this said -they were yummy and i thank you for posting the recipe, :o)