Chocolate Fat Balls made with nuts, seeds, cacao powder, and sweetened with dates! A delicious energy bite that is paleo and vegan.
Protein-rich fat balls made with nuts and seeds are a stellar healthy lower-sugar snack to keep you energized throughout the day.
I’ve never been much of a snacky person, but after I first made fat balls a few months ago, I’ve been putting them on repeat for that mid-morning or mid-afternoon little munch sesh.
Fat balls are just so easy to throw together in 10 minutes, and are awesome at chilling in the refrigerator or freezer for your snacking convenience.
Fat ball flavors? Let’s go crazy. Because the chocolate craving is always real, I decided to take a cacao approach to my classic Paleo Fat Balls for a little version 3.0 (v. 2.0 were those Vanilla Chai Fat Balls).
The cacao powder adds a nice richness to the balls, with the added health benefit of antioxidants.
How to Make Chocolate Fat Balls:
Simply add all of the ingredients to a food processor and blend until a thick dough forms! You may need to adjust the amount of almond milk based on your food processor.
Transfer the mixture to the refrigerator and chill for 2 hours. Roll the mixture into desired-sized balls and enjoy!
Store the balls in the refrigerator in a sealable container or bag.
Recipe Adaptations:
- You can change up the nuts and seeds and/or use pure maple syrup rather than dates for sweetening the fat balls.
- I don’t make my fat balls very sweet, so if you prefer a sweeter snack, you can ramp up the number of dates you add.
For more similar recipes for energy bites or fat balls, check out my Fat Balls archive!
For your nutty chocolate fix…
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw almonds
- 1 cup raw walnuts
- 1/3 cup raw cacao powder
- 1/2 cup coconut butter
- 5 large medjool dates, pitted
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, to taste
- 5 to 8 tablespoons almond milk or coconut milk, see instructions
Instructions
- Pulse all ingredients except the almond milk/coconut milk in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the milk a couple tablespoons at a time and continue processing until a sticky dough forms.
- Transfer fat ball mixture to a sealable container and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
- Roll balls out of the fat ball mixture and transfer to a zip lock bag or sealed container. Keep in the refrigerator for up to 10 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Nutrition
Jenny
Wednesday 13th of June 2018
Could I use cashews instead of walnuts?
Julia
Thursday 14th of June 2018
Hi Jenny! Absolutely! Walnuts, pecans, and almonds will work as a replacement. :D
Amaryah
Thursday 1st of March 2018
These look delicious! Do you think I could sub almond butter or peanut butter instead of the coconut butter? (not really sure what coconut butter is, but I know I don't have it and I'm not a huge coconut flavor fan...)
Thanks!!
Julia
Friday 2nd of March 2018
Hi Amaryah, I've never tested the recipe using a nut butter to replace the coconut butter, but I think it would work great! Let me know how it turns out!
Alicia
Thursday 1st of March 2018
Hi there! In your post you talk about replacing dates with maple syrup. My kiddo is actually allergic to dates, so I would need to do so. Do you have a recommended conversion? would you need to up other solid ingredients to replace bulk of dates?
Julia
Friday 2nd of March 2018
Hi Alicia! I would start with 5 tablespoons pure maple syrup and not add any coconut milk/almond milk to start. If the ball mixture seems too crumbly and isn't sticking together, then you can start adding the coconut milk. Be sure you taste the mixture to check for sweetness...depending on how sweet your child likes their treats, you may go up to 6-8 T pure maple syrup. You shouldn't need to add any additional dry ingredients, since you'd be offsetting the wet :) Hope you love these! xo