Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls (grain-free, vegan)
These healthy no-bake chocolate peanut butter balls are loaded with protein and are vegan, grain-free, gluten-free and dairy-free.
Yesterday, I set out to make a cinnamon raisin version of this raw peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough. I wasn’t feeling overly ambitious (meaning I didn’t feel like baking anything), and it sounded easy enough. Just use almond butter instead of peanut butter and add cinnamon and raisins! But no. That was gross.
Then I decided that double chocolate peanut butter cookie dough sounded even better than the cinnamon raisin idea. However, after adding additional peanut butter and doubling the maple syrup, and still not being in love with the recipe, it became clear that that wasn’t in the cards, either. So I finally decided just to go with protein balls.
These are delicious, but they don’t taste like cookie dough. They do actually taste like grain-free cookie dough, but that’s not what I was going for! If I’m going to make raw cookie dough, I want it to taste like it was made with all-purpose flour.
What we have here instead are some chocolate peanut butter protein balls! They don’t taste like dessert, but they’re great for a quick, healthy, late-night chocolate craving. To be honest, I prefer the peanut butter cookie dough because it’s straight-up peanut butter goodness. Once you add cocoa powder (with chocolate chips being an exception!) to something peanut butter flavored, it’s just not quite as good.
I haven’t tried it, but I imagine almond butter would work in these if you want a paleo-friendly version. But after my cookie dough experiments, I don’t say that with 100% confidence.
Nut butters are weird. I always thought they were mostly interchangeable, but lately I’ve been experimenting with them, and the end product doesn’t always have the same texture. Sometimes they’re really different.
See those white specks in the balls? If you use a finely ground almond flour, you shouldn’t have those. I ran out of my favorite brand, which is uniformly finely ground, and had to buy something else. Only now, as I look at these pictures, did I realize how poorly this other almond flour was ground. Do almond flour brands vary that greatly in the US? It almost looks as if I dumped some coconut flakes in there! Anyway. Enjoy the protein balls. :)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Balls (grain-free, vegan)
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (224 grams) salted natural peanut butter the kind with just salt and nuts
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup (66 grams) finely ground blanched almond flour
- 3 tablespoons (22 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 6 tablespoons mini semi-sweet chocolate chips use dairy-free / vegan chocolate chips, if necessary
- pinch salt if your peanut butter is unsalted
Instructions
- Mix everything together and roll into balls by squeezing together tablespoon-sized balls of dough. The dough should be a little crumbly, but not so crumbly that you can’t form balls easily. If it’s too dry to squeeze into balls, add a little extra water.
- Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to one week. These also freeze well.
Notes
- The nutrition information provided is calculated as a courtesy and is only an estimate. I am not a licensed nutritionist or dietitian. For the most accurate nutritional data, consult a professional or use your preferred calculator.
I used almond butter and some flax seeds and honey instead of maple syrup and they came out delicious!! No texture change per my kids.
Delicious and easy. Thank you!!
That’s great! I’m so happy you and your kids liked them. :) Thanks a bunch for your comment!
How many calories are in each ball? (Roughly)
I don’t have that info but you can copy and paste the recipe here for the nutritional profile, if you’d like. :)
would coconut flour work instead of almond meal/flour ? Thank you.
Coconut flour is unfortunately not interchangeable with any other flour as it absorbs so much more liquid. You could use a different type of nut meal, though. :)
I made these tonight with coconut flour and they worked great! I didn’t have a problem with using it like I sometimes find. They are my new favourite snack.
That’s awesome! So happy you like them. :) Thanks for your comment!
Gave these a try using wowbutter (I’m allergic to peanuts/tree nuts) and I love them! And I finally understand the obsession with chocolate & peanut butter :p
That’s awesome that they worked out well with sunflower seed butter! Thanks for letting me know and for your feedback. I’m happy you got a taste of chocolate and peanut butter. :)
I wonder if sunflower butter would come out just as good as peanut butter?
I haven’t tried it but I’m thinking it’d work (though I couldn’t guarantee it!) I hope you’ll enjoy them. :)
Excwllwnt!
I’ve been looking for a recipe like this everywhere.
I’m going to adapt it slightly to incorporate some protein powder, but this recipe looks really really good.
Thanks.
I hope you’ll enjoy them! I like your idea of adding protein powder. :)
do you have to use syrup?
Honey might work but it’s a bit thicker than maple syrup so I’m not positive.
so where is the protein exactly?
The peanut butter. :) If you think protein balls need protein powder, then I recommend finding a different recipe as adding protein powder would make these crumbly. Sorry about that!
I have been getting late-night (and, let’s face it, all day) chocolate cravings that these would be perfect for! In response to your almond flour question: yes! There is a ton of variation in how finely and uniformly ground the flour is – not to mention the blanched vs. skin-on flour. Oy vey, so many choices!
That’s good to know! I really had no idea until now. What surprises me is I’ve never had any complaints about any of my almond flour recipes not coming out well. So luckily it seems that the difference isn’t big enough to affect the outcome! Thank goodness for that. :)
These look delicious! I need to make a batch of these to my Crossfit box to share post workout!
Thanks! I hope everyone will enjoy them. :)
Perfect Snack! I am trying to cut down on the super sweet chocolate snacks and limiting them all together at bedtime so these would be perfect!!
I think they would, too! :)
These little protein balls look delicious! I actually really like the peanut butter addition better than almond butter. I’m pretty sure I’m the only person in the world who is not a giant fan of almond butter. I get my almond meal from Trader Joe’s so it’s pretty uniform BUT I sorta like those bigger pieces in your recipe. It gives it a nice texture I’m sure :) Also, I LOVE that second picture. The chocolate chip is so pretty :)
Thanks so much! And I don’t like almond butter, either. Unless it’s mixed up with a lot of maple syrup and cinnamon. :D
I need a gluten-free recipe for the weekend. Guess which one I’m going to make! I might go one step further and cover these in dark chocolate. :)
Covering them in chocolate is an amazing idea!
Almond flours definitely differ in the US. I’ve bought a few different brands for macaron making and they are always different levels of coarseness. In the end, it all goes in my food processor for another round anyway but still, it’s annoying. Still despite not being what you wanted these look great!
That’s good to know! Thanks for your comment. :)
Well they might not be exactly what you envisioned, but these protein balls look pretty tasty.
Thanks, Kirsten!
Although both types of those cookies sound tasty to me, these protein balls look really excellent – perfect happy munching food.
Agreed! :)
Even those these protein balls weren’t what you had in mind when you started, they look and sound really good! In fact, they look like the perfect post-workout snack.
I love your post-workout snack idea!
Yum!
I totally agree with you about the ‘inequality’ of nut butters. Some are so oily and others have a way too powerful taste. These look perfect!
I reckon if you added an egg and bicarb you could make them into delicious cookies too!!
Thanks, Lisa! And I don’t know about turning these into cookies. I think they’d need a lot more sweetener. :D
Another great recipe Erin! I can’t stop staring at that close-up second photo – these look so good! :-)
Thanks so much, Martha!
I haven’t made protein balls before, but these look awesome! Can’t wait to try!
I hope you’ll enjoy them, Angie!
I love protein balls and these look delicious! Absolutely perfect!
Thanks, Lauren! :)