Adventures In Healthy Treats
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Who says sweets can’t be (relatively) healthy? I mean, that’s just nonsense! Case in point…peanut butter balls. I have a good recipe for those, and I love making them, although these days I make them in bar form. But they are super sweet, and super high calorie, while not having much in the way of nutritional value.
However, there’s another way. A former co-worker of mine (a vegan, actually) gave me a really excellent recipe that she called “buckeyes.” Only four ingredients…dates, peanut butter, semi-sweet or dark chocolate, and a smidge of coconut oil. Now, I will say that if you bite into one of these thinking it will taste like a peanut butter ball, you will be disappointed. They are nowhere near as sweet. But they are very flavorful and satisfying and plenty sweet enough.
The method is super easy…first, soak your pitted dates in boiling water for at least 30 minutes. If you want to get a little ahead of the game, you could even chop the dates up a little before you soak them. Then drain them, put them in a food processor or blender, and blend them until they’re reasonably smooth. Then add your room-temperature peanut butter (natural peanut butter works great for this; down with hydrogenated fats!) and blend it some more until it’s reasonably smooth.
Use a 1 Tbsp cookie scoop (I like this one) to scoop up your date/peanut butter mixture and set the little piles on a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. Once you’ve scooped out all the filling, take each little pile and roll it in your hands so that you have a nice round ball. If your mixture is a little crumbly, squeeze it in your hands and then roll it.
Set the whole cookie sheet in the freezer for about 30 minutes and work on melting your chocolate. I like to use a glass bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water for this, but you could melt it in the microwave if you wanted. Either way, melt your coconut oil and chocolate chips together in the glass bowl until it’s very smooth. Then dip the frozen balls in the chocolate one at a time and then set the completed treat on another cookie sheet covered in waxed paper.
If anyone cares about the dipping method, I find the easiest way is to use two spoons. Submerge the frozen ball completely, then lift it out with one spoon. Then transfer it to the other spoon, and tap the unoccupied spoon to remove chocolate. Transfer the ball again and tap again. Move the ball back and forth between the spoons however many times you want (I do it four times), tapping in between, and each time, a lot of excess chocolate will fall back into the glass bowl. Then gently roll the ball off the spoon onto the cookie sheet.
And that’s it! Refrigerate or freeze the balls on the cookie sheet, and then you can put them in a ziplock storage bag. These need to be kept in the fridge or freezer. They’ll keep for a week or so in the fridge and a month or two in the freezer.
Now, it’s almost inevitable that you’ll have some liquid chocolate left over. Grab some nuts (I like dry-roasted peanuts for this), toss them into the chocolate, stir until all the nuts are coated with chocolate, and then scoop them out in little chocolate nut clusters onto a cookie sheet covered with waxed paper. Once these cool and firm up, they can be stored at room temperature in an air-tight container. Look at that…two (relatively) healthy treats for the price of one! You’re welcome.
Date Peanut Butter Balls
Click here for printable PDF of recipe
INGREDIENTS
20 Medjool dates, pitted
2 cups peanut butter
1 24-oz bag chocolate chips
2 Tbsp coconut oil
DIRECTIONS
Cover the pitted dates with hot water and allow to soak for 30 minutes, then drain and proceed.
Place drained dates in a food processor and blend until relatively smooth. Then add the peanut butter and blend until smooth. Scoop the mixture out 1 T at a time and roll into balls. Place the balls on a tray covered with wax paper and freeze for 30 minutes.
Melt the chocolate chips slowly in the microwave or over a double boiler on the stove. Add in the coconut oil and stir until very smooth. Dip the chilled balls into the chocolate mixture one at a time and place on the wax paper on the tray. If microwaving, reheat the chocolate as needed. If there is any chocolate left over, mix in some whole peanuts and have some peanut clusters.
Store finished chocolate-covered balls in the fridge for a few days or the freezer for a few months.
