Simple and delicious plant-based/vegan, no-bake peanut and date energy balls!
Peanut-Date Energy Balls Recipe
Yields: about 20 balls
Prep time: 10 minutes + about 20 minutes for rolling, depending on your rolling skills or whether or not you have help
Ingredients:
1 1/4 c ~ 100g of rolled oats (use gluten-free if necessary)
2/3 c ~100g of unsalted roasted peanuts
1c ~ 130g of pitted dates**
2 Tbsp of peanut butter (homemade or store-bought, 100% peanuts: no added oil, sugar or salt)
1-2 Tbsp of coconut oil* (extra virgin, cold pressed)
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
*If the peanut butter you're using is very oily you may omit the coconut oil, if it's quite dry add in 2 Tbsp of coconut oil, but if your peanut butter is the regular, not-too-runny and not-too-dry consistency add just 1 Tbsp of coconut oil. If you want to make it completely oil-free, substitute the oil with 1 Tbsp of peanut butter.
**If you're using store-bought pitted dates, do make sure all the stones are really out before you throw your dates into the blender. The date pits are really hard and can damage your blade or worse- your teeth. What I usually do is I either open up each date or I squeeze each of them with my thumb and index finger to make sure they're definitely pitted.
Method:
Optional: roast the peanuts in the frying pan (about 5-8 minutes on a medium-high heat, but it depends on your stove and pan so watch them carefully as they can get burned really quickly) or in the oven (at 350F/175C for about 15-20 minutes), allow the peanuts to cool down a bit before proceeding with the recipe.
1- If your dates are very dry you might want to place them in a bowl and pour some hot water over them to make them a bit softer. Let them sit in the water for up to a minute, don't soak them for longer than that, because we don't want to lose their sweetness. Pour out the date water into a glass and set aside, you might need it later.
2- In a food processor or a blender, blend the oats and the roasted peanuts until you get a flour-like consistency.
3- Add in the cinnamon and salt and pulse a few more times.
4- Add the dates, peanut butter and coconut oil and mix everything together until you get a slightly gooey, dough-like consistency.
5- If you've blended everything together but it's not sticking together, add in about 1 Tbsp of the date water you'd put aside or just regular filtered water. Blend everything, turn off your food processor and check with your fingers if the dough is malleable, if it sticks together well enough to be rolled into a ball. If it is you're done with the blending part, if it's still too dry, add just a little bit more water, 1/2 tsp and check again, if you've added too much water and the dough is too sticky, no worries, you can add a little bit of oat flour (made by simply blending oats into flour) until you get the perfect dough.
6- If your food processor left you with a dough ball that's great, if if you feel your dough could use a little help with sticking together nicely, you might want to transfer it to a bowl or a clean surface and knead it gently a couple of times until you do end up with one big dough ball.
7- You can now start to break apart your dough ball with your fingers or using a teaspoon. I usually use a scale to make sure the balls are similar in size and I find that 20g/0.7oz balls are just the perfect size, however depending on my mood, I've been known to make them half that size as well- it's really up to you.
8- Once you've measured out (or eye-balled) the desired amount of dough for your ball, roll it between your palms into a ball and voila. It's done:)
Optional: you can roll your balls in whatever topping you desire, be it sesame, chia or hemp seeds, coconut flakes, oat flour or even cacao powder. I've also made them into pralines by covering them with melted chocolate.
9- Place the balls gently into an airtight container and keep them in the fridge until you're ready to serve them. If you want to eat them right away I recommend chilling them in the freezer for at least a few minutes so that they harden a little bit.
You can keep the energy balls in an airtight container in the fridge for a couple of weeks and if you freeze them you should be able to enjoy them for up to 3 months, that is if there's any left at that point;)
I usually freeze mine right away and take out only what I'm about to serve/eat. The really cool thing is that they will keep longer and fresher in the freezer, but they don't actually freeze completely, so when taken out of the freezer you can eat them basically right away or you can wait a few minutes for them not to be so cold. When they are chilled they do become harder and in case you ever wanted to cut them up into halves or quarters I also recommend doing it right after you take them out of the freezer so that you can cut them neatly with a sharp knife and avoid squishing them in the process.
Enjoy!
And make sure to try our other, equally simple energy balls recipes, for example: the cacao-walnut ones or, what I call, the "ferrero" version ones!
