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.

What's In Buckeye Balls? 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.

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.

Named for their resemblance to the poisonous nut of the Ohio buckeye tree, the state tree of Ohio, this candy is particularly popular in Ohio and neighboring states. It is common for Ohioans to make buckeyes at home, but they are also available in mail-order catalogs and candy shops.

These seeds are popularly believed to bring good luck, and school children especially still carry them in their pockets as a charm. And while highly poisonous, buckeye seeds contain much protein and were used as a food source by Native Americans who boiled and leached them to remove their toxins.

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.

What is the superstition of a buckeye nut? ›

According to folklore, the buckeye or nuts that fall from the tree resemble the eye of a deer buck, and carrying one brings good luck. Maybe some Ohio State Buckeye fans will have one in their pockets when the Bucks battle the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor on Saturday at noon.

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.

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.

Conkers are also known regionally as cheesers, a "cheeser" being a conker with one or more flat sides, which comes about due to it sharing its pod with other conkers (twins or triplets). Also Cheggers was used in Lancaster, England in the 1920s.

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

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.

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.

SHORTENING added to the chocolate is the big secret ingredient for buckeyes. This helps stabilize the chocolate so that it dips nicely, and helps prevent the chocolate from weeping and sweating once it's hardened. Traditionally, people added paraffin wax to the chocolate to achieve this.

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