I have fond memories of making peanut butter balls with my mom and sister every holiday season. The women in my family are all big peanut butter and chocolate fans, so it seems like a natural holiday dessert to splurge on. In fact, I know when they see this post they’ll be running to the kitchen to make this version! You can’t beat how easy peanut butter balls are to throw together during those hectic last-minute preparations.
This year, I came up with a lighter version of my childhood favourite. Rather than using 2 cups of powdered sugar and plenty of butter like the old recipe, I turned to a few lighter ingredients to do the same job.
This version contains much less sweetener than classic recipes, but I promise you won’t even notice the difference, especially once the chocolate coating is in place!
The secret to achieving a similar dough (without all the powdered sugar) is a little trick I picked up from making homemade nut butter in my food processor. I noticed when I added too much maple syrup into the machine, it would cause the nut butter to seize up (i.e., get really thick). After that point, no matter how much I processed the nut butter, it never returned back to it’s creamy, drippy state. A similar thing happens when you add water to melted chocolate.
For this recipe, I used this knowledge to my advantage by stirring the peanut butter and maple syrup vigorously, until the mixture “seized” and thickened up. Well, it worked like a charm! All I had to do after that was add a couple tablespoons of coconut flour for additional thickening powers. Coconut flour is quite dense and drying, so just a little bit did the trick. No powdered sugar necessary. Yes!
Tip: If you are new to coconut flour and don’t want to buy a whole bag, try buying a small amount from a bulk food bin. I’m pretty sure Bulk Barn carries coconut flour.
At first, when you stir in the maple syrup, it will look quite runny and you’ll think there’s no way it’s going to thicken up, but it does. Just keep on stirring! It took me probably 30 seconds of stirring and letting it sit a couple minutes helps it firm up too (the coconut flour absorbs a lot of moisture). The timing will depend on how thick (or thin) your brand of peanut butter is (I only recommend using 100% all-natural peanut butter with nothing else added). It’s quite possible you might need a touch more (or less) coconut flour than what I used. I’m not sure if other sweeteners will work the same way that maple syrup does, so I can’t vouch for the results if you swap out the maple syrup.
Once it thickened up, I stirred in some sea salt to enhance the flavours and rice crisp cereal for a crunchy texture. Oh my….simply irresistible!!
Watch them disappear almost as quickly as they were made.
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Peanut Better Balls
Yield
16-20 balls
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Chill time
25
Total time
These peanut butter balls forgo the powdered sugar and butter, and instead use a few lighter ingredients using only a fraction of the sweetener compared to traditional recipes. You'll wonder how you ever lived without this recipe around the holidays! It's quick to throw together and makes about 16-20 balls that will fill a platter for a holiday party. For mess-free finger food, place the balls in mini cupcake liners.
Ingredients
- 1 cup 100% natural peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
- 3.5-4 tablespoons pure maple syrup, to taste (see note)
- 1-3 tablespoons coconut flour, only if needed
- fine grain sea salt, to taste (I used 1/4 teaspoon)
- 6 tablespoons gluten-free rice crisp cereal
- 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life)
- 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil
Directions
- Stir the jar of peanut butter well before using. In a large bowl, mix together the peanut butter and maple syrup vigorously, for 30-60 seconds, until it thickens up. It will go from runny to thick during this time.
- Stir in the coconut flour until combined (if your PB is dry, you might be able to skip this step or only use half). We're looking for a texture that isn't too sticky, but not too dry either. Let it sit for a couple minutes to firm up as the coconut flour will continue to absorb moisture with time. Add a touch more coconut flour if necessary. Or if it's too dry, add a touch more syrup.
- Add salt to taste and stir in the rice crisp cereal.
- Shape into small balls (I made about 17).
- In a small pot, add the chocolate chips and coconut oil and heat over low heat, stirring frequently. Once half the chips have melted, remove from heat and stir until completely smooth.
- With a fork, dip the balls into the melted chocolate. Tap off excess chocolate on the side of the pot and place the ball on a plate or cutting board lined with parchment. Repeat for the rest. Save any leftover melted chocolate for later.
- Place balls in the freezer for around 6-8 minutes until mostly firm.
- Dip a fork into the leftover melted chocolate and drizzle it on top of the balls to create a "sophisticated" design like the baking diva you are.
- Freeze the balls for another 10-15 minutes, until the chocolate is completely set. If you can wait that long, you win life.
Tip:
1) I'm not sure if other liquid sweeteners will work in this recipe (and firm up the peanut butter the same way as maple syrup does), therefore I can't recommend any. A reader did tell me that agave nectar worked for her though! 2) I recommend only using 100% natural peanut butter for this recipe. You just want to see roasted peanuts on the label (and maybe salt, if it’s salted). The no-stir kinds made with oil and sugar might not work the same way. The PB I used was very drippy. If your PB seems dry, you probably won't need to use all of the coconut flour.
I made these last night and they turned out awesome! I used Greek honey (which is thicker than regular honey) instead and it worked just fine. After rolling them into balls, I found that putting them into the freezer to firm up before coating them in chocolate made them much easier to work with. Another great recipe, thanks Angela!
Amazing! I will make these again :)
Hi Angela! : )
I know you wrote this a few years back, but I wanted you to know that I just made a double batch of these this morning, and they turned out wonderfully! I really wanted a low sugar buckeye recipe, so I was happy to try this one. My husband and I were happy to taste the peanut butter, since often the high sugar recipes taste more of butter and sugar than peanut : ) I also love how few dishes this takes, since we don’t have a dishwasher. (I measured the 2 cups peanut butter directly into my 4 cup measuring pyrex)
Anyway, thanks a bunch, and if you’re still writing, then keep it up!
-Gabby
I loved this recipe. I was missing some ingredients so I added chocolate flavored protein powder and cocoa powder instead of coconut flour and added toasted coconut flakes and chopped pecans instead of the rice crispies. It came out just great. I froze them and they hardened and had the texture of a chocolate truffle. Putting the cocoa powder in saved me the time to dip them in chocolate. Next time I’ll be sure to get the missing ingredients and try the original recipe. Thanks for a great healthy recipe, can’t wait to try some of your others.
I know I’m late in the game here, but I made this recipe yesterday and it was amazing!! So easy to make and insanely delicious!
I can’t get over how healthy this recipe is, such a great idea to use coconut flour! These sound delicious, anything with PB and Chocolate is… I love the name of these too! So clever! :) hehe
Made these tonight without crispies (I like smooth peanut butter balls) and chocolate out of maple, cocoa powder, and coconut oil since I didn’t have vegan chips. The batter is like eating Reese’s filling! So good.
How disappointing that I found this recipe via your oil-free recipes tag, yet lo and behold, oil is one of the ingredients. :(
These were a super big hit, simple and delicious
Loved this recipe! Going to make another batch to take home this Christmas. I’m wanting to add bourbon or whiskey. Other recipes add they bourbon to the peanut butter mixture. Do you think this would be best, instead of adding it to the chocolate?
These tasted amazing! Biggest problem is that they were too runny to stick a fork in an dip and instead i rolled them in the chocolate and ended up with ugly blobs with chocolate pooled on the bottom. Is there a way to make the chocolate thinner to make dipping easier? Also I used 2.5 tablespoons of coconut flour, should I have used more?
At what point do you add the rice cereal? Did that step get skipped in directions?
NM! I see it!
As a child we would make chocolate covered peanut butter balls, we called them buckeyes. They were a favorite of mine so I attempted them with my kids last year. I became so disgusted with the amount of powdered sugar in them that I could finish making them. So I was thrilled to find this recipe and made them this year for Christmas. They are incredible and just as decadent as the buckeyes I made as a child without the excessive amount of sugar.
I just made these using the peanut butter that you grind at the store and they were way too dry and falling apart. I did not use any flour. I added extra maple syrup but hesitated to use too much more because I was going for low sweetness. The resulting creation tasted wonderful though. I’m going to use the jar kind next time. Thank you for the recipe.
I just made these this weekend for easter! Everyone loved them! I was luck to get away with two more at the end of the night for my own enjoyment! <3 Great recipe! SUPER easy to make with and excellent payoff!
So happy everyone enjoyed them, Shelli! Happy Easter. :)
I made this wonderful recipe on the weekend and they didn’t last more than two days in our home! I have a sensitivity/intolerance to chocolate so I substituted with carob chips and they turned out perfect. For an added sweet vs. salty factor, I sprinkled a little pink Himalayan seat salt (also what I used in the peanut butter mixture) on top before putting them in the freezer and it was amazing! Thanks for another great recipe!
Hi Lea, I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe (they don’t last long in my house, either)!
Hi all!
Just wanted to share my “substitutions” to this recipe, which worked out SO well. First, I doubled the recipe and it only made about 15 balls, so that’s number one. Double everything, lol.
For sweeteners, if you don’t love the taste of the maple syrup, try honey. I used half maple and half honey.
Then, I subbed chia seeds for the crisped rice, but when doubling the recipe, just use 1/4 cup of chia seeds, as they expand in the mixture.
And finally, for the chocolate, I used unsweetened cacao, which by itself isnt good but when on the cookies, yummy!
A healthier modification!
Thanks for sharing, Kristen!
Made these bad boys with Sunbutter and honey, no rice crispies and mct oil instead of plain coconut oil with the chocolate. It was all we had in the house BUT still delicious :) boyfriend approved!
these are so damn delicious. My favs. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon
<3 I will be making these, I have saved the recipe, thank you :)