Protein balls are the perfect snack for lunch boxes or afternoon tea as they’re super filling and full of goodness, but they can be expensive to buy and contain a lot of unnecessary ingredients and additives. The solution is to make your own at home! My daughter loves peanut butter, so we have a couple of ‘go to’ recipes, such as Satay Vegetable Pie, to satisfy her peanut butter cravings. However this protein ball recipe is by far the quickest and easiest. It’s so easy, you can get the kids to make them! Ok, so they might not look totally appealing to the eye, but what they lack in looks, they make up for in flavour 🙂
With only 5 ingredients, you can whip these little balls of deliciousness in no time. Here’s what you will need:
Peanut Butter Protein Balls
Ingredients
6 tbs organic peanut butter
2 tsp organic protein powder
2 tsp organic rice malt syrup
1/2 organic vanilla bean
2 tbs caramelised buckinis + extra for coating the balls
organic coconut oil (if necessary)
Method
To make the protein balls, simply scrape out the vanilla seeds from the bean pod and combine with all the other ingredients. Make sure it is mixed really well, roll into small balls (about the size of a 10c piece) in the palm of your hand, then roll the balls in the extra buckinis to coat them in a crunchy outer crust.
Tip: Rolling the balls in the palm of your hand provides a little heat to help them stick together. However, if you find your mixture is a bit dry, add a teaspoon of coconut oil to give it a bit of moisture.
Tip: The amounts listed in the ingredients are really just a guide – you might find you have to add a little more of less to suit your tastes, depending on what brand of ingredients you use (e.g.: as mentioned above, some peanut butters may be less oily than others and you may have to add more coconut oil).
Tips & Variations For The Ingredients…
(Please note I have no affiliations with any of the product brands mentioned in this blog post, nor do I receive any financial benefits for recommending them. I am merely pointing out what we use in our family and why they might be good for you too!)
You can use smooth or crunchy peanut butter for this recipe. If you can’t find any organic peanut butter, try making your own by simply blitzing a heap of organic peanuts in a blender or processor until it becomes a paste (add a little coconut oil to make it smoother if you need). We used Planet Organic Crunchy Peanut Butter for this batch, however there are quite a few brands that make organic peanut butter available at local health food or organic stores and supermarkets.
We used Amazonia’s Raw Protein Isolate Powder (Vanilla) for this recipe, as it has organic ingredients and live enzymes that feeds digestive bacteria plus it contains loads of goodness with no nasty additives (check out their website for full details on their products and ingredients). This product can be a bit pricey, however you can use it in many things, including adding it to your homemade smoothie or milkshake, adding it to homemade frozen yoghurt or fruit iceblocks and sprinkling on your cereal or yoghurt. Super good for your and yummy too!
We used Pureharvest Organic Rice Malt Syrup as the sweetener for this recipe as it doesn’t give an unnecessary sugar/fructose hit and mess with your insulin levels etc as conventional sweeteners such as cane sugar and honey can do. That said, if you are after some sweet goodness from natural organic raw honey, you could easily substitute the rice malt syrup for honey in this recipe, perhaps just add little less and test the taste/sweetness as you are mixing it.
Whilst waiting of our usual Daintree Mountain View Vanilla Beans to be ready to buy, we have used Honest To Goodness Organic Vanilla Beans in this recipe. If you don’t have organic vanilla beans, add about 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, paste or powder.
Caramelised Buckinis are delicious little crunchy bits of raw activated buckwheat with a coating of superfoods (Maca, Mesquite) and yumminess made by Loving Earth 🙂 They also come in different flavours, so for a variation, try the Chocolate Buckinis or the range of Loving Earth Cereals with Buckinis to add extra zing to your protein balls. Again, they can be a little exy, however you can use them in a variety of recipes such as slices and protein balls or simple sprinkle them on your cereal for a little extra crunchy goodness. For substitutes, see the variations mentioned below.
To mix it up a bit, here are a few other variations to try…
- Add some organic raw cacao nibs/bits to the mixture for a chocolate-y crunch
- Instead of buckinis, coat your protein balls in crushed peanuts
- For a different texture, try adding organic puffed brown rice, sultanas, pepitas and/or sunflower seeds to the mixture instead of buckinis
- To add a little tang, try adding some goji berries to the mix
- Sensitive to peanuts? You can easily replace the peanut butter with almond, hazelnut or cashew paste
- For real decadence, substitute some or all of the peanut butter for Loving Earth Hazelnut Chocolate Butter or Biona Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (NB: these substitutes have evaporated coconut nectar or cane sugar and vanilla in them, so you may not need to add rice malt syrup or vanilla, and they are therefore perhaps not as healthy as the other options). For a healthier chocolate-y taste, add some raw cacao powder (and possibly a little coconut oil to balance the moisture) to the mixture.
These yummy protein balls have a great chewy centre with yummy crunchy bits to give you a variety of texture in every bite. Plus you can easily vary the ingredients to get a whole new flavour or texture. So if you have a peanut butter fan in your family, why not give them a try! You can also post some pics of your tasty treats on The Food Werewolf Facebook page or on Instagram with the tag #thefoodwerewolf #pbproteinballs . I’d love to see your fabulous creations 🙂
Happy cooking!
Loren x
PS For another yummy protein/energy ball recipe, check out my latest eBook Going Gluten Free Permanently, with a great Choc Chia Date Balls recipe!
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