No Bake Pumpkin Oatmeal Balls
These healthy no bake pumpkin balls with almond flour and chocolate chips are easy to make in under 15 minutes. They are subtly sweet without added sugars, and have a delightful pumpkin flavour with hints of vanilla and cinnamon.
Servings 30 Balls
Calories 64kcal
Ingredients
- 2 cups Rolled Oats
- ½ cup Natural Peanut Butter
- ¾ cup Cooked pumpkin mashed
- ½ cup Powdered sweetener
- 1 cup Sugar free chocolate chips
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla essence
- ½ teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add rolled oats, peanut butter, pumpkin, sweetener, vanilla essence cinnamon and salt to a food processor.
- Blitz until a moist dough is formed.
- Remove dough from food processor and put into a large mixing bowl.
- Add chocolate chips and stir through so they are evenly distributed.
- Use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out portions of dough and roll into a ball. If the dough is sticky, use a little water to dampen your hands. Roll out around 30 balls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cover with foil or plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours to firm up. Then, then store balls in an air tight container in the fridge for upto 7 days.
Notes
- Rolled Oats: Any type of oats will work here as they are going to be blitzed in the food processor. Alternatively, you could substitute the oats with store bought oat flour, almond flour or almond meal. All will work just fine and the store bought substitutes are a good option if you don’t have a food processor, or can’t be bothered getting it out.
- Peanut Butter: I like to use an all natural creamy peanut butter as this is one of the binders that helps the balls to stick together. Smooth peanut butter is what I typically use, although it would be a good alternative to try crunch peanut butter for extra texture. Also, you could substitute other nut butters such as almond butter or cashew butter
- Pumpkin: I use a Japanese pumpkin when I make pumpkin balls because I like the bright colour, and I find its texture to be softer when cooked. (Instructions below on how to make your own pumpkin puree). Alternatively you could use canned pumpkin.
- Sweetener: I use powdered monkfruit sweetener which is finer than granulated sweetener. Granulated sweetener will also work, however whicheve sweetener you use make sure that is measures like sugar. Stevia is also another option to try.
- Chocolate chips: I used sugar free chocolate chips (Noshu brand available from Woolworths and Coles in Australia). If you can’t find sugar free chocolate chips, buy semi sweet dark chocolate chips, or you could buy a sugar free dark chocolate bar and chop it up into tiny pieces. Dark chocolate is definitely better than milk chocolate in this recipe.
- Vanilla essence: This adds additional flavour, however if you don’t have it you could leave it out.
- Cinnamon: just a little ground cinnamon helps to bring out the pumpkin flavours. Alternatively you could experiment with other spices or use a pumpkin spice mix.
- Salt: this helps to balance the sweetness.
- Optional Addins: Pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin spice, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, all spice, ground cloves, chopped pecans/walnuts/hazelnuts.
- Finishing Options: melt white or dark chocolate and drizzle in a zig zag pattern over the balls (a filling a piping bag with melted chocolate makes this easier), or fill a bowl with melted chocolate, stock a toothpick in the balls and dip each on into chocolate. Set it aside to firm up on parchment paper and while you do the rest and then refrigerate to harden.
Nutrition
Calories: 64kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g
