Easter Peanut Butter Eggs Recipe

Everyone’s favorite dessert flavor combination comes together in these easy no-bake chocolate peanut butter Easter egg candies! They’re like a homemade version of the popular Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs, only a bit softer and sweeter, which makes the crisp, flaky sea salt on top a wonderful addition.

If you enjoy candy this time of year, these easy Buttercream Egg Candies are another egg-cellent choice. (Ha! Couldn’t resist.)

In 2015, I authored a cookbook all about making from-scratch candy and it includes some of my favorite recipes like classic chocolate fudge and caramel turtles. But the homemade peanut butter cups are certainly the crowd favorite, and I used a similar filling to create today’s peanut butter egg candies.

Tell Me About These Peanut Butter Eggs:

• Flavor: Indulge in peanut butter and chocolate bliss with every single bite of these egg-shaped candies. These homemade peanut butter eggs are certainly a special treat because they’re rich, sugary, and will satisfy your sweet cravings. You can coat the candies with dark, milk, or white chocolates. In today’s batch, I used a combination of dark and white chocolate to create a milk chocolate-like coating.
• Texture: The peanut butter filling is smooth, creamy, and thick. Dark bittersweet chocolate isn’t as soft as milk or white chocolates, so if you want a texture contrast to the creamy peanut butter filling, dark is the best candy coating choice.
• Ease: Homemade candy has the reputation of being finicky and complicated, but you don’t need a sugar PhD (LOL) or a fancy candy thermometer to make these. A beginner can easily master this recipe by following my detailed instructions below. These are EASY!

There are plenty of homemade peanut butter egg candy recipes online and I’m sure they are all wonderful! I really like this one because the filling is super creamy, but still holds its shape well.

Have you ever made peanut butter balls before? This recipe is similar, only I reduced the butter and confectioners’ sugar so the peanut butter flavor comes through even more. The full printable recipe is below, but let’s walk through some particulars so you’re all set for sweet tooth success.

Just 7 Ingredients in These Easter Egg Candies

Optional: Sprinkle a little coarse sea salt or flaky sea salt on top of the chocolate before it sets. Or you can top the candies with festive sprinkles instead.

How to Shape Peanut Butter Egg Candies—It’s Easy!

You’re essentially making a very thick peanut butter filling and molding it into flat egg-like shapes. Each Easter egg candy is 1.5 Tablespoons (about 1 ounce, or 29 grams) of filling. For consistency and ease, I recommend using a medium cookie scoop or digital scale to measure the filling for each. First, roll the filling into a ball. Flatten it between your palms so it’s about 3/4 inch thick, and then use your fingers to narrow one end to make an egg shape. It’s easier than you think, and they certainly don’t need to be perfect!

If you’re having difficulty shaping the peanut butter eggs, here are some troubleshooting tips. If your filling is:

• Too Soft: If your butter was too soft or if the peanut butter you’re using is too thin, the filling can get a little soft and sticky. The refrigerator can fix that—stop what you’re doing and chill the bowl of filling for 15 minutes in the refrigerator before trying again.
• Too Crumbly: If the filling gets a little crumbly, keeping molding it and mashing it between your hands. The warmth of your hands can help bring it back together.

This Step Makes or Breaks Your Recipe—Literally

The most important part of this homemade Easter candy recipe is chilling the shaped eggs. When making buttercream egg candies, you must chill the buttercream mixture before shaping it because it’s too soft and unworkable. For these peanut butter eggs, however, you can shape the filling right after making it.

Chill the shaped peanut butter eggs in the refrigerator to set their shape. The colder the shaped eggs, the easier time you’ll have coating them.

If you skip chilling, the egg candies will completely fall apart when you try to coat them. Trust me, I’ve made these and plenty of other similar candies before, and you will absolutely lose your mind trying to coat them if they’re room temperature or warm.

Success Tips for Coating the Peanut Butter Eggs

I repeat: Do not use chocolate chips. They’re great for chocolate chip cookies, but since they contain stabilizers, they do not melt into the correct coating consistency.

Troubleshoot: Coating in Chocolate

Your peanut butter Easter egg candy is perfectly shaped and cold, but dipping them into chocolate is giving you some problems. Let’s work through them together.

• Chocolate is hardening before I’m finished: This is an easy fix! First, make sure you are working quickly. Second, keep the chocolate fluid by reheating in the microwave for 10 seconds or use a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, spoon the chocolate into a glass bowl set over a pot of simmering water. This keeps the chocolate slightly warm. Don’t let the water touch the bottom of the glass bowl.
• Chocolate is too thick: 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil thins out the chocolate so it’s the best consistency for dipping. If you find your chocolate is still too thick, add a little more vegetable oil. Coconut oil works too, but I prefer vegetable oil.
• Chocolate isn’t smooth on the candies: It was likely too thick. You want a very thin chocolate. See above.
• Filling is melting when dipping: The chocolate is too hot. Let it sit for a few minutes to slightly cool down and then try again.
• Uncoated candies are losing their shape: If the eggs are softening and losing their shape as you’re dipping them, put the baking sheet back in the fridge for 5–10 minutes and then try again.