Buckeyes Recipe - Lauren's Latest (2024)

FAQs

Should you keep buckeyes in the fridge? ›

Buckeyes are fine to sit out at room temperature on holiday cookie plates for up to 24 hours, though if you're keeping them around for longer than that, store in an airtight container in the refrigerator where they'll stay fresh for up to 2 weeks. Buckeyes also freeze super well.

They're called buckeyes because they look like the nuts that grow on Ohio buckeye trees. This recipe for buckeye candy is so good that I double it whenever I make it.

Here's what's in buckeye balls: The peanut butter balls are made with confectioners' sugar, creamy peanut butter, unsalted butter, and vanilla extract. The coating comes together quickly with just semi-sweet chocolate chips and shortening.

The buckeye candy originated in Ohio (a.k.a. the Buckeye State). According to legend, sometime in the 1960s, Ohio resident Gail Tabor invented buckeyes while trying to dip peanut butter balls in chocolate.

Removing the shell and roasting the nut neutralizes its harmful tannic acid content and makes for a protein-packed snack. If not prepared properly though, buckeye nuts are toxic to humans, causing symptoms including weakness, diarrhea, vomiting, paralysis, and death.

Squirrels are the only wildlife that eat buckeye seeds, as they are toxic for every other animal.

In Britain, they are sometimes called conker trees because of their link with the game of conkers, played with the seeds, also called conkers.

Many indigenous groups utilized buckeye seeds for food, often when other plant food sources were scarce. These tribes included the Costanoan, Salinan, Kitanemuk, Serrano, Wappo, Sierra Miwok, Coast Miwok, Chumash, Kawaiisu, Northern Maidu among others.

The Buckeye's Place in History. As well as the belief in the good fortune of its storied seed, the buckeye has been held to cure rheumatism and other, more minor ailments. Pioneering farm families also made soap from the kernels of buckeye seeds, and many a child's cradle was carved from the wood of this tree.

Poisonous Plant: All parts of the plant (leaves, bark, fruit) are highly toxic if ingested – because of the glycoside aesculin, the saponin aescin, and possibly alkaloids. Symptoms are muscle weakness and paralysis, dilated pupils, vomiting, diarrhea, depression, paralysis, and stupor.

Do any animals eat buckeye nuts? ›

While gray squirrels and other animals do eat buckeyes, it is never a preferred food. In fact, both the seeds and tender young leaves of the plant are said to be poisonous to humans and livestock alike. Humans have long made use of the red buckeye. Native Americans were known to crush buckeye branches to catch fish.

Taste your favorite homemade treat in every scoop of our homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeye Ice Cream. Creamy peanut butter and mini peanut butter cups swirl together in our smooth butterfudge ice cream.

Ohio is known as the Buckeye State. But what exactly is a buckeye? The buckeye tree (aesculus glabra) is native to North America. In late summer and early fall, the trees bear fruit that contain a large nut.

Buckeyes and horsechestnuts are members of the genus Aesculus. The true chestnuts are members of a different genus - Castanea.

So, while the chocolate-covered, peanut butter candy may well be called moose eyes in the northeast, hereabouts they are called buckeyes.

If you already have a buckeye tree and wish to collect nuts and plant them to grow additional buckeye trees, collect the nuts once they fall from the tree naturally in September and October. Remove the nuts from the leathery husks and store them in the refrigerator for 120 days.

Although it doesn't need to be refrigerated, cold temperatures ensure it lasts longer. If you prefer not to refrigerate your peanut butter, aim to keep it in a cool, dark place, such as the pantry. It's also important to always close the jar of peanut butter tightly.

They can live 250 years. California Buckeye is native only in the California Floristic Province. It is well adapted to our Mediterranean climate.

It is said you can rub your favorite buckeye along the side of your nose to keep it oiled. While I haven't tried that, you can apply lacquer to a dried buckeye to keep the gloss look. Buckeye nuts come in a round or oblong spiny capsule and can commonly contain one, two, three, four or maybe even five buckeyes!