These Healthy Peanut Butter Balls are melt-in-your-mouth rich, fudgy, and perfectly salty-sweet. They're covered in silky chocolate and are the best satisfying dessert or snack!
Drain soaked cashews and add to a food processor along with the maple syrup and cacao butter*.
Whizz until completely smooth - you might need to mix it around a few times to make sure it blends evenly.
Add the peanut butter and blend briefly until combined - the peanut butter needs to be added at this stage not at the beginning, as otherwise the mixture becomes very gloopy and hard to blend. Be careful not to over-blend, as the mixture will become very greasy as the oil will be released from the peanut butter.
If the mixture turns out too liquidy to form into balls immediately, put it in the fridge for a bit - around 10-20 minutes should do the trick. This will make it firm up as the cacao butter solidifies.
Use two teaspoons to make teaspoon-sized balls of the mixture, then use your hands to roll into a ball.
Place the ball onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.
Repeat for the rest of the mixture - you should be able to make 12 balls.
Place in the fridge for at least 1 hour until they have firmed up.
Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl with the coconut oil (using a small but deep bowl makes it easier to dip the balls into the melted chocolate).
Place the bowl over a pan of boiling water and stir regularly until melted – make sure not to overheat it as the chocolate will ‘split’ if you heat it too much.
Use asmall spoon to carefully lift the balls one at a time into the melted chocolate and use the spoon to spoon the melted chocolate over the ball until it has been completely covered in melted chocolate.
Use a small fork to lift the ball out of the melted chocolate and back onto the baking tray lined with baking paper.
Repeat for the rest of the balls.
Drizzle the remaining melted chocolate over the top of the balls to decorate, if desired.
Place in the fridge for at least 1 hour until the chocolate has hardened completely.
Keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a few days.
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Notes
*If your food processor isn’t very powerful, it may have trouble with the cacao butter. In this case, melt the cacao butter first using a bain-marie before adding to the food processor.**For a refined sugar free version, use a refined sugar free chocolate or cocoa powder
You can replace the peanut butter with almond butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter or tahini.
For a nut-free version, use sunflower seed butter or tahini instead of peanut butter.