Mini Buckeye Tart Recipe

This mini buckeye tart is basically a no-bake recipe! It’s perfect for when you have little sous chefs in the kitchen – my girls love helping with this one!

Confession: I don’t always love baking with kids. It’s just such a mess. I KNOW I’M THE WORST ???? But around the holidays, I embrace the mess and find any and all excuse to get into the kitchen and get baking!

So I know this is actually subject to debate, but we are from the Midwest, and call those tasty little, chocolate-covered peanut butter balls “buckeyes”. Think of this buckeye tart recipe as a buckeye’s fancy brother from the big city.

I love to cheat and start with a box of pie crusts from the grocery store. They taste so good, nobody will judge you, promise. Aside from the baking of the crusts and the chopping of the nuts, this recipe is very hands-on for the girls.

What you need:

1 pie crust, thawed according to package instructions
3 spoonfuls of creamy peanut butter (this is my all-time favorite)
1 tablespoon of butter, softened (not melted)
1/2 cup of powdered sugar (keep this handy, you may need to add more depending on consistency)
1/4 cup of heavy cream (^ same)
3/4 cup chocolate chips
a handful or so of peanuts, chopped

What you do:

Preheat the oven to 450.
Roll your thawed pie crust out, and either free-hand or use a circle cookie cutter to cut out small circles. Reroll and repeat if needed.
Mold the little circles into an ungreased muffin tray. Use a fork to poke a few small holes in the bottom of each.
Bake 5-8 minutes, until they start to get golden. Let them sit and cool a few minutes in the pan, before removing them to a cooling rack.
In a small bowl, mix the peanut butter, powdered sugar, butter, and a tablespoon of the heavy cream – but save the rest! You’ll need to stir until it’s a creamy consistency.
Then, spoon it into a piping bag or a ziplock bag (just snip the corner off), and pipe the mixture into the cooled crusts.
Microwave the chocolate chops with the remaining heavy cream in 20 second increments, until melted. Do not over-cook! Stir between each time in the microwave.
Spoon the chocolate over the peanut butter mixture inside of the crusts.
Top with the chopped nuts, and set in the fridge to set (about an hour!)

Completely optional, but with any leftover crust dough, you could cut out a smaller shape (we did stars) and used them as an additional topper for an extra festive touch!