Y’all already know that I am a snacker. Always have been, always will be.
Between meals, I find myself in the pantry, fridge, or in my emergency snack pack that follows me around. :) My metabolism just needs a boost. It’s either that or my jaw will forget how to work if I don’t use it every few hours.
I definitely have my go-to snacks but I’ve been expanding my grab-and-go snack repitoir recently and these No Bake Chocolate, Almond & Date Balls are the satisfying snack to curb that afternoon sweet treat craving.
You know what I’m talking about. We’ve all been there when we’ve let ourselves get too hungry and end up grabbing anything and anything available, no matter the health quality or calorie intake. Which inventively leads to a sugar crash and another grumbling tummy. No bueno!
If only there were snacks that we were portable, delicious, and more wholesome (aka with ingredients you can pronounce).
I wouldn’t quite call No Bake Chocolate, Almond & Date Balls “energy balls” as they’re not as healthy or long-lasting as versions with flax meal or oats in them.
Each ball is basically a brownie, just in a ball-form. They are “sweet treat balls” if you will.
Just enough sweetness to curb that sugar craving without refined sugars like white sugar, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose, all those artificial sweeteners, etc.
Instead opting for natural alternatives like the maple syrup, dates, and molasses. Now just because these are classified as natural sweetness doesn’t mean you can eat them as much as you want. Treat them the same as refined sugars and limit yourself.
Besides being free from refined sugar, they are also naturally gluten-free and dairy-free.
Each ball is packed with the fibre and protein of almonds and nut butter, the sweetness of maple syrup and dates, combined with chocolate which…well…generally makes everything better!
Another thing I really love about this recipe is that it’s easily adaptable. Feel free to substitute the nut choice and nut butter to your favorites. I've even added some unsweetened shredded coconut and craisins to batches before and they did not disappoint. The short and short is: Endless combinations. As we say often here on studioist.co, you do you! That’s our unofficial slogan. Haha.
Did I mention they are No Bake?
Huge bonus here. As soon as you roll them, you can start enjoying them. I usually sneak one right away then save the rest for those afternoon sweet cravings.
Gluten-Free, Vegan Chocolate, Almond & Date Balls
Ingredients
- 2 cups raw almonds
- 15 Medjool dates, pitted
- 1/3 cup dark cocoa powder (n1)
- 1/2 cup all-natural peanut butter or nut butter of choice
- 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp water, additional as needed
- Pinch of sea salt
Directions
- In a food processor (n2), process almonds until chopped to desired consistency (some people prefer a fine meal while I prefer a roughly grind).
- Add remaining ingredients to the processor.
- Process on high until well combined.
- Add additional water as needed. This will depend how on sticky your dates are.
- Process briefly again if more water is added, otherwise scoop mixture by the tablespoon into your hands and roll into balls.
- Enjoy!
- Store remaining in fridge.
Notes
n1. If you would like the balls to look more like truffles, place extra cocoa powder in shallow dish and roll each ball in cocoa powder to finish.
n2. If no food processor is available, simply crush the almonds and finely chop the dates then combine by hand or hand mixer.
