Graham Cracker Chess Set and Peanut Butter Graham Cracker Balls

This crazy graham cracker chess set with peanut butter balls is sponsored by Honey Maid.

Did you do any fun holiday baking this weekend? We kicked off the long weekend with a couple of fun holiday baking projects, a unique twist on a gingerbread house and yummy peanut butter graham cracker balls.

Chocolate covered graham cracker balls are so easy to make and if you love peanut butter cups, then you will LOVE these! Mine is a 4-ingredient recipe because I added the red and green M&M’s but Peter thought they would have been just fine without the candy.

Graham Cracker Balls Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of Honey Maid graham crackers
• 1 cup of  Skippy peanut butter
• chocolate for dipping
• optional candy for decorating

I started by adding a full sleeve of graham crackers to a ziplock bag and crushing them with my rolling-pin. Just a few minutes of rolling it and the crackers will be a fine dust. Then mix 1 1/2 cups of graham crackers with 1 cup of peanut butter. Make smallish size balls of dough and place them on a wax paper covered pan.

Once your pan is filled, pop them into the freezer for a few hours. Leave them in the freezer while you prep your chocolate. I melted chocolate chips but found the chocolate was a bit too thick. I suggest using the melting chocolate specifically for cake pops/dipping. I tried a couple of different methods but found just frosting each one with the melted chocolate to work best for me. It was a very messy task though. Then sprinkle them with red and green mini M&M’s before popping them back into the freezer for an hour.

They didn’t turn out perfect looking but they were very festive and delicious! You could easily customize these with different color candies for other holidays and events. Or skip the candies all together. Peter thought they were perfect just covered in chocolate.

I know gingerbread style houses are the popular Christmas baking idea and you could definitely make cute houses with graham crackers and peanut butter but I wanted to make something a little different, a little unique. My dad has been teaching the boys (4 and 7) how to play chess, so I thought it’d be fun to create a Christmas chess board instead. Quinn loved the idea!

Christmas Graham Cracker Chess Set

• Honey Maid graham crackers
• Skippy peanut butter
• mini M&M’s
• holiday candy pieces
• brown sugar

You need a very sturdy base, so I melted a little brown sugar to glue our square chess board base together. It worked fabulously but there are a couple of things to remember. You must melt the brown sugar very slowly so it doesn’t burn. It will be very hot, so only adults should work with it and it will cool quickly so have all your graham cracker pieces ready to go as soon as it’s melted.

I cut the graham crackers in 1/2 length wise to create the chess base. You can wrap the graham crackers in damp paper towels and microwave them for 20 seconds or so to soften them before cutting.

Once I secured the square base, I added more graham crackers (secured with peanut butter) inside the base so the chess board would easily sit on top of the base.

Then it was Quinn’s turn to decorate our chess board.  We frosted each full graham cracker sheet with peanut butter and then added red and green M&M’s to create the chess board pattern.

.

Then we just added each graham cracker to the board. using a little extra peanut butter filled in the cracks. Peanut Butter. It fills the cracks of the heart. Who remembers that quote? 😉

The chess pieces were created pre-made icing decorations I found in the baking aisle. Instead of white vs. black, it’s gingerbread men vs. holiday lights! I cut tiny squares of graham crackers, spread on some peanut butter and then stuck each decoration on top.

It turned out quite cute! And beyond making the base of board, it’s a completely easy holiday craft for the kiddos to help with… at least 7+ year old kiddos. 🙂

We found all the supplies needed at Walmart. I even have a printable coupon for the Honey Maid graham crackers!

What festive holiday baking does your family do?