These chocolate protein balls taste like a chocolate covered almond! With clean and nutritious ingredients and a quick prep time, these will quickly become a weekly meal prepping staple! Only 7 ingredients!
Chocolate Protein Balls
These chocolate protein balls are my absolute favorite energy bite recipe! They taste like a cocoa-roasted almond with the perfect hint of sweetness. They are also quick to prepare and require only 7 ingredients.
With so few ingredients, the ingredients used can make a big difference! Below I’ll share my favorite ingredients to use in these easy chocolate protein balls.
Chocolate Protein Balls Ingredients
- Almonds: roasted almonds are always best! They’ll add tons of extra flavor to these bites without the extra work of you having to toast them. I use dry roasted and lightly salted almonds.
- Almond Butter: more on this below
- Honey
- Vanilla extract: a nice flavor add, but not entirely necessary if you don’t have any on hand.
- Dutch Process Cocoa Powder: more on this below
- Oats: old-fashioned or quick oats work great
- Miniature dark chocolate chips: milk or semi-sweet work too, but are less nutritious overall (dark chocolate has essential fats your body needs and is a powerful source of antioxidants (source.))
Quick Tip
If using unsalted almonds and unsalted almond butter, be sure to add a pinch or two of salt to these chocolate protein balls.
Using a good almond butter
This nut butter adds flavor, protein, and healthy fats to these balls. As far as almond butter goes, I recommend a slow-roasted and lightly salted almond butter you enjoy eating straight from the jar.
If you don’t enjoy a bite from the jar of almond butter, it’s not going to add a whole lot flavor-wise to these chocolate protein balls.
Dutch process cocoa powder
The one ingredient that really sets these chocolate protein balls apart is the cocoa powder. I recommend using Dutch–process instead of natural or plain cocoa powder. The Dutch process offers a more robust and intensely deep chocolate flavor. Regular cocoa powder will create a less flavorful and drier texture.
(Hershey’s “Special Dark”® cocoa powder is a Dutch-process cocoa powder that is readily found at most grocery stores.)
Blending the almonds & oats
You will need a high powered blender or food processor to quickly pulse the almonds and oats.
When blending/pulsing the oats, be careful to not over-pulse or blend. If almonds are blended too long, they will begin to turn into almond butter and we want them to be the consistency of flour. I like to pulse a few times, stir, pulse, stir, etc. until a fine powder (like flour) has formed.
Mixing the Chocolate Protein Balls
The dough for these chocolate protein balls is thick and sticky. I like using an electric hand mixer best for mixing everything together, but a stand mixer also works well.
If mixing by hand with a wooden spoon, you may need to use your hands to knead the mixture and get it to come together nicely.
Quick Tip
Depending on the actual ingredients used, you may need more or less honey or oats to get these chocolate protein balls to come together nicely. If they are too wet, add a bit more ground up oats and if they are too dry add in additional almond butter or honey.
More healthy snacks
- No Bake Energy Bites
- Easy homemade Granola
- Chocolate Granola Bars with coconut oil
- No bake Healthy Breakfast Cookies
- Healthy Blueberry Muffins
Chocolate Protein Balls
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
- Hand mixer
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups old-fashioned or quick oats
- 1/2 cup dry roasted and lightly salted almonds
- 1-1/2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons honey divided
- 1/2 cup almond butter
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a high-powered blender or food processor, add the old fashioned or quick oats. Pulse or blend until they resemble flour. You may need to stir it around to get all the oats to be fully blended. Add the blended up oats to a large bowl.
- Add the almonds to the processor or blender and pulse until they resemble flour. Do not blend too long or it turns to almond butter. Add to the bowl with the ground up oats. The measurements of oats and almonds should be the measurements before blending, no need to measure after blending.
- Add in the Dutch-process cocoa powder, vanilla, 4 tablespoons honey, almond butter, and mini chocolate chips. Add a pinch of salt if desired or if your almond butter or almonds aren't salted. Using a hand mixer, mix ingredients together and then knead with your hands until a thick dough forms. If the mixture isn’t coming together, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of honey; I usually add this extra honey, but occasionally the almond butter is wet enough that it isn’t needed. If the dough is too wet, add additional powdered oats.
- Roll mixture into balls, each ball of dough should be 2 teaspoons in size to get around 30 balls.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
If I wanted to add protein powder what would I substitute that for? It’s chocolate so I’m thinking the cocoa powder?
This recipe has chocolate protein powder in it!
Love these! Do you think using a KitchenAid Mixer would work to mix the dough up?
Sure! 🙂
Sooooo good!! Thank you
So happy you liked these! You are welcome 🙂