Peanut Butter Balls: Healthy Gluten & Dairy Free

These no sugar, no gluten, no dairy, no bake peanut butter balls use six simple, wholesome ingredients. While you can certainly dress these up into a decadent dessert they can also be kept fairly plain as a healthy snack you can feel good about giving to your children.

To say that getting kids to eat healthy food is a challenge would be an understatement. And then getting them to want to eat healthy food… well that’s practically rocket science. Then pair the natural pickiness of children with the sweet tooth of their parents and you’ve got a sugar addict in the making. Not at all speaking from experience… 🫣

Well since becoming a mother I’ve learned a lot about food. And the best part is that good, wholesome, healthy food can (and should) taste good. 

But I still love dessert… who doesn’t? And what satisfies the sweet tooth better than the heavenly combination of peanut butter and chocolate? 😍 Growing up my brothers would make delicious, decadent peanut butter balls mixed with powdered sugar and rolled in melted chocolate. It was wonderful, can a healthy version even compare?

After a brief brainstorming session with my sister, a little hands on work, and twenty minutes of chill time, we found our answer.

The Best Healthy Peanut Butter Balls, Hands Down.

These peanut butter balls are not only easy to make, but they are rich in flavor with the natural sweetness of honey and a slight hint of saltiness. To our wonder they are more delicious than the sugar packed peanut butter balls of our childhood. 

What You Will Need For the Peanut Butter Balls:

• Rolled oats – these oats are going to be thrown into a food processor to become oat flour, if you will. You can use them raw, however, if you find they cause digestive issues, such as bloating, go ahead and toast them first. Cook on the stove or in the oven over medium low heat until they are golden brown and then blend them into a powder.

• Natural peanut butter – Jiffy just doesn’t even cut it. Real peanut butter is the only way to go in my opinion. The oil will be separated at first, just use a knife and mix it up until its combined.

• Raw local honey – real, unpasteurized honey is truly a gift from God. It not only sweetens our teas and breads but the health benefits are amazing. Raw honey is packed with antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Seriously for the best flavor and the amazing health benefits go with raw local honey.
• Shredded coconut – sweetened or unsweetened both work great

• Unrefined mineral salt – Redmond’s Real Salt is my favorite

• Chia seeds

Toppings:

What I love most about these peanut butter balls is that you literally have full reign over what you put on them. Here are my favorite toppings:

• Chocolate (dairy free or not)
• Raw cashews
• Oreos (Okay, I know oreos are not healthy but in moderation it’s not the worst thing in the world and it’s so good I couldn’t not mention it here)

You could also experiment with sunflower seeds, pepitas or pine nuts. Chopped walnuts or pecans would also be great. 

How To Make Peanut Butter Balls

These work up so quickly and easily, this is a great recipe for your kids to work on with you. 

To start, you will need to measure out your oats. Once you’ve done that, it is up to you to decide whether or not you want to toast them before blending them. To toast them, you could either use the stove or the oven. Cook over medium heat until the oats are golden brown. About 3-5 minutes.

Add all ingredients to a large mixing bowl, you could use your hands to do this since the mixture will become very thick. Stir until all the ingredients are incorporated and the dough forms a cohesive ball.

Roll the balls between your hands like you used to do when playing with play dough in school. Each ball will be about two tablespoons, however, there is no reason to be precise here. Place on a dinner plate or cutting board while you prepare the toppings. 

For the Toppings

You have so many options here you can really make these your own. If you don’t want the whole ball coated in chocolate but you still want some chocolatey satisfaction, you could chop chocolate and mix it into the peanut butter balls directly. Or use mini chocolate chips and do the same thing. 

You could add a dollop of chocolate on top of the balls like a chocolate hat. This is the method my kids prefer, and the option we use the most as it’s so much faster than coating the whole ball. Plus it uses less chocolate, which is good for the bank and the body 😀

If you want to add nuts to the peanut butter ball, having the chocolate coating will give the nuts something to stick to. 

Chop the nuts into small pieces, we are going for a drumstick ice cream cone kind of look. Plus the smaller nuts are less offending to picky eaters in my experience. 

To Melt the Chocolate

We usually use the microwave, stirring the chocolate every 30 seconds until it’s sufficiently runny. Use real chocolate, not the chocolate flavored melting wafers. 

Rolling the balls in the chocolate is fun…. And messy. It’s a task my children thoroughly enjoy. Don’t worry if they look a little sloppy, the taste is the same and the joy of watching your children learn how to work in the kitchen is worth every mess. 

Next, Roll in the nuts. You can place the chocolate coated peanut butter balls in the bowl with the nuts and simply spoon the nuts over the top and sides. Whatever works easiest for you. 

Finally, chill the balls in the freezer for twenty minutes if you want to enjoy them ASAP, or leave them in the fridge for an hour. 

Enjoy your beautiful creations and store the extras in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Peanut Butter Balls

Difficulty: Easy 

Prep time: 10-20 minutes

Chill time: 20 minutes – 1 hour

Total time: 30 minutes – 1 hour, twenty minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Yield: 24 balls

Ingredients: 

• 2 heaping cups of oats, ground into flour
• 1 cup natural peanut butter
• ½ cup raw honey
• ⅓ cup shredded coconut
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tsp chia seeds
• Chocolate, about ½- ¾ cups
• 1/4 cup chopped cashews

Directions:

For the balls

1. Measure out the oats and blend in a food processor until fine.
2. Add oats and remaining ingredients to a large bowl.
3. Mix until ingredients form a cohesive ball
4. Form the peanut butter balls, about 2-3 tbsp each

For the toppings

1. Chop cashews into small pieces. Alternatively you could pulse the nuts in a blender. Place in a small bowl.
2. Add chocolate to a small bowl. Melt chocolate in the microwave at 30 second intervals, mixing in between each interval until it thoroughly melted.

Finishing touches

1. Roll the peanut butter balls into the chocolate until coated. 
2. Place the chocolate covered balls into the chopped cashews and roll or spoon nuts over to coat.
3. Place on a plate, cutting board or cookie sheet and place in the freezer for 20 minutes or the fridge for 1 hour. 
4. Enjoy and store in an airtight container. 

Let me know if you try these and what flavor combinations you come up with for the toppings in the comments below!