Good morning! I hope you’ve all had a good weekend. Today I have an early gym session but thought I’d share these almond butter balls before I go.
Over the weekend I decided it was time to make up a batch of nut butter balls. I was kindly sent a big pot of almond butter from the friendly folk over at My Vitamins. I normally buy my nut butter in small jars and tend to get through them pretty quickly, especially if I’ve been doing a lot of baking. It’s nice to have a 1kg pot to hand, I think I’ll be investing in these on a regular basis.
When it comes to making energy balls I don’t like to follow the rules. Actually, I don’t think there are any rules. I think it’s best to use what you’ve got and tailor the recipe to your needs. If you want to make protein balls then simply add in your protein mix, if you prefer something chocolatey then mix in chocolate chunks or roll the finished ball in melted chocolate. You can use nuts, dried fruit, oats, dates and whatever types of nut butter you fancy.
For my almond butter balls I decided to use what I had knocking about in the kitchen. So, the base was obviously almond butter, oats (gluten free), a mix of seeds, nuts and dried fruit, cinnamon, vanilla extract, honey and coconut flakes. I initially wanted to use dates but with nothing but an empty box of medjools I decided to go with honey instead and it worked well.
I’m going to be making these again and if I adapt the recipe or create something different I’ll be sure to share another post, or maybe just add it into this one.
This is (roughly) what I used to make 20 almond butter balls:
2 cups of almond butter
2 cups of oats
1/2 cup of mixed nuts, seeds and fruit
2 teaspoons of cinnamon – I’d say use 3
2 tablespoons of honey – add more to taste
A dash of vanilla extract
If you need to add extra almond butter or honey to help them stick together then that’s fine. This is just a rough guide as I tend to chuck everything in a bowl and mix.
If you’ve mostly used seeds you can simply pop all the ingredients into a bowl and give them a good mix. If you’ve got some chunky nuts and dates then it’s a good idea to blend them up before adding in the almond butter. This will give the balls a finer texture.
Stick your hands into the mixing bowl and squish the mixture together to create the balls. Roll them in coconut (or your topping of choice) then pop them onto a plate. They can go into the fridge for around 20 minutes to chill or if you’re impatient, like me then put them into the freezer for 10 minutes.
It’s really as simple as that. You can make these as healthy or unhealthy as you like. I’ll be using mine as an energy pick up after my gym sessions this week. I’ve actually just had a couple with my breakfast and they’re real good!
If you’re looking to invest in a large tub of nut butter then this pot from My Vitamins is excellent. It’s 100% natural almond butter with no added salt of sugar. You can pick between smooth and crunchy, I went for crunchy this time but I think smooth would also work well for this recipe. If you’d like to find out more about how I use almond butter in baking and smoothies then leave a comment and I’ll be more than happy to share my recipes.
Right, I’m off to the gym. I hope you all have a productive day.